Memories Written in Stone
by Demigod
Summary: Terra's memory of her days as a superheroine are all but gone, and her life as an average highschool student is happy and carefree. However, nothing lasts forever. With her peaceful life ruined, and pressures from all sides, how will Terra cope?
1. Warnings

**Memories Written in Stone

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A/N: I know what you are thinking. "Wow, how cliche! Demigod is making a 'Terra comes back' fic!" You're right, it is a cliche. I haven't read many (any) of them, but I'm sure they exist. However, I want to write one too, so I am. Anyway, I hope I can do it fairly well, and in a way that does justice to the characters. Also, before you ask, I'm fully aware of basically all DC comics continuity involving Terra, Slade, and the Teen Titans. I know a lot of things I write here sort of imply that I'm confused. I'm not, trust me. Anyway, hope you enjoy the fic!

* * *

As the white light began to burn Trigon away, and as the Titans stared at the shining and astoundingly powerful incarnation of Raven, a lone figure was quickly retreating from the scene. Having only recently regained his life, Slade found that he had no desire to spend the remainder of it in prison. The wretched state of the city was changing around him as he ran. The buildings were losing the blackened coloring, the sky was changing again from blood-red to blue, and the people were changing from back from stone to flesh. Slade paused in his mad run for a moment, thinking.

Turning quickly, he covered the few short blocks to the old park in only a few moments. Trigon's death knell still rang in the air, but the city seemed to have already taken it's first breaths after the near-apocalypse. Slade lifted the small boulder that blocked the entrance to the cave complex, and slipped inside. The darkness immediately overwhelmed him, and forced him to take a more cautious advance. He pulled a small, long-living flare from a belt compartment, and lit it, letting his eyes adjust to the relative darkness.

Slade stepped forward slowly, walking through the long, empty tunnel. He still felt a twinge of antipathy for the place. It had been the scene of another confrontation, as well as another failure. He had nearly paid the ultimate price for his inability to control his former apprentice. Rusted iron doors lay twisted and ruined nearby, as Slade entered the main chamber. He continued forwards, his footsteps sounding loudly in the silent room. Finally, he found what he had hoped to see.

Unconscious, and barely breathing, Terra lay on the floor in front of the stone pedestal that had served as a monument for her. Slade stepped closer, more cautious now, knowing of the raw and dangerous power that the girl contained. The light of the flare shone on her bright blond hair, and glinted on the dangerous looking costume that he had crafted for her. Slade paused. Now that he had confirmed that Terra was alive, he suddenly realized that he had rushed here with no plan for her.

Slowly, Slade knelt, holding the low-burning flare carefully away from the girl, and lifting her gently with one arm. Carrying her limp form over his shoulder, he stood, and began to walk away from the pedestal. As he proceeded through the tunnel again, he allowed his mind to wander over possibilities for the girl. The only audible noises in the cave were his footsteps, and the girl's shallow breathing.

Slade arrived in a safehouse of his design, nearly two hours later. He'd taken care to avoid notice by citizens, knowing that Robin would be relentless in pursuing rumors of his whereabouts. Traveling through the abandoned and disused sections of the old sewer system beneath Jump City, Slade felt he'd reasonably avoided any followers. Slade laid Terra on a small table, then stepped to the side and carefully filled a small syringe with sedative. He'd need her unconscious for a while longer. He flinched slightly as he pressed the needle into the vein on her arm, not enjoying the act of sedating his former pupil. The syringe emptied, he placed it on a nearby tray.

The operation, as it were, took several hours. Terra had trusted him so completely, and had worn the costume for such a length of time, that it had nearly fully integrated with her body. It had been designed to be ultimately removable, however, and only slight scarring would remain. A few short lines, here and there, on her torso. Slade now sat, silently, watching the girl breathe. Without the metal costume, Terra lay on the table uncovered.

The remaining neural implants inside Terra had confirmed the physical signs of massive memory loss. It was quite possible that Terra would awake with absolutely no idea of who she was, or who she had been. Slade found himself once again lacking direction or a plan. Terra would be asleep for perhaps another four hours, and then she would awake. Would she awake scared and confused, seeking knowledge of her past from anyone who seemed able to provide it? Or would she awake terrified of this world she may know nothing of, and strike out with her incredible power, destroying everything she saw?

Slade stood, and walked towards a nearby armoire, quickly changing his clothing to a more normal sort. Dressed in casual wear, he pulled an overlarge shirt from the armoire, and wrapped Terra in it. Lifting her once more, he stepped out from his small safehouse, and placed her in the front seat of his civilian car. Arranging her to appear as if she was simply sleeping from a long drive, Slade pulled away from the house. A short distance away, in the city proper, was an apartment he used from time to time.

Within three hours, Slade had fashioned a reasonable facsimile of a teenaged girl's room in the spare bedroom of his apartment. Having purchased a few other odds and ends to toss around the apartment to create a more homey atmosphere, he laid Terra down in her new bed. He'd dressed her in a school uniform for the nearby Murakami private high school, hoping to further the illusion should it prove possible.

Just an hour later, nearly perfectly on schedule, Terra's eyes opened. Slade was there, watching her still, in his civilian clothes. Terra stared at the ceiling for a moment, then looked around the room blankly, no comprehension in her face. Finally, her eyes rested on Slade's, and her mouth moved slightly, as if she'd forgotten how to speak.

"Don't worry. I know that you do not remember me, but you are safe here." Slade kept his voice calm and deliberate. He wanted to do nothing that might cause the dangerous girl to panic.

Terra's lips moved, slowly. A few moments later, when she spoke, her voice was weak and scared. "Where? Where am I?"

Slade smiled at her, hoping to soothe her fear. "You are in your room. I am Slade Wilson, your father."

"My father?" Terra looked at Slade skeptically at first, but her expression softened quickly. "You are... my father. Who... am I?"

Slade reached out, placing the small butterfly clip again into Terra's blonder hair. "You are my daughter... Rose."

Rose smiled, happy to know her name again.

* * *

Rose sighed as she stepped through the doorway from the hallway into the apartment. It had been a long day at school, seemingly much longer than normal. Her father, Slade, was in his workout room, as he often was when she returned from classes.

Walking quickly down the hallway, and tossing her books nonchalantly on her floor, Rose fell backwards onto her bed, staring at the ceiling in exhaustion. The ceasing of the wooden knocking sounds of her father's wing chun dummy indicated that he was coming to speak to her. Rose didn't move.

Her father entered her room, and brought the scent of a heavy workout with him. "You are tired, dear child. Was your day overly taxing?" Slade sat down on a nearby chair, facing Rose.

Rose still lay on her back in her bed, talking to her father while staring at the ceiling. "Not really. It's just that Beastboy was still bothering me all day long. He followed me from class to class demanding that I 'remember' who I was."

Even without seeing him, Rose could feel her father's irritation with the Titan. She'd noticed that whenever the Titans were mentioned, her father was uneasy. "What did you say to him?"

Rose pulled herself up to a sitting position, to face her father and alleviate whatever fears he had. "I told him that whatever girl he was looking for was obviously just a memory, and that I wasn't her." Rose decided to leave out the part about the test she hadn't studied for; it didn't seem relevant at the moment anyway. "He didn't bother me after that."

Slade's voice didn't fluctuate or seem accusational as he asked his question. "Why did you arrive so late in the day? It is nearly eight o'clock."

Rose smiled. "I was out with Ashley and Jessica. They were trying to help cheer me up from all the weirdness with Beastboy. They don't like him, and I think Ashley has some kind of problem with superheroes. Still, I can't help but wonder if Beastboy might be right. Something about him does seem familiar, and I don't really remember anything beyond a few months ago."

Slade stood, a sure sign of his dismissal of the idea. "I've told you of your past. You were never a superheroine." Slade left Rose's room, calling out from the hallway. "I will prepare dinner. You need to do your homework, as it is late in the day and it must be done."

Rose stuck out her tongue at her doorway, knowing that her father couldn't see her. Sighing, she reached down and gathered her books, and began working. Two hours and a small dinner later, she was done. She placed her books back on the floor, and laid back on her bed again.

Something about Beastboy was more familiar than just another superhero. Everyone in Jump City knew who Beastboy was, but something about him just pulled a nagging feeling inside her. She couldn't place the feeling. It was somewhere between guilt, friendship, and attraction. Though she had no idea why anyone would be attracted to the awkward and somewhat pushy Beastboy, she couldn't help but wonder why he seemed important.

She closed her eyes, thinking back into the missing memories of her past. She tried to remember what it would have been like to be a Teen Titan, to fight supervillains, to move the earth as Beastboy had told her she could. Opening her eyes again, she sighed. Still, nothing came to the surface. She'd recalled plenty of academic information from her past. American and world history, mathematics, lingual skills, and similar sorts of information were all remembered without any effort. However, she couldn't remember her old friends, or anything about her family life from the period. All she had to go on were the vague stories that her father told her.

Rose sighed again, giving up on her memories and standing. She dressed for bed, still a little depressed by her failure to remember anything. She left her room, finding her father watching the late newscast in the living room. She smiled and kissed him on the cheek. "Goodnight dad. Will you be here tomorrow morning?"

Slade nodded, then turned off the television. "I have no work in the immediate future. I will be here any time that you need me. Go to sleep, my dear. Perhaps school will be easier for you tomorrow."

Rose smiled, and left the room, heading back to her own.

Slade, sitting in the silence of his apartment, listened as his adopted daughter's breath became slow and even. Only after she was asleep did he allow himself to think over what she had revealed to him. Despite the attempted dissuasion by the robotic clone of Slade, Beastboy still seemed intent on forcing Terra to remember her past. Slade was uncertain that it was even possible for her to remember; it was possible that her brain had been physically injured enough to remove the memories entirely. Still, it was a threat. Slade did not know how to deal with it directly, without irritating the Titans enough to start a full investigation into his whereabouts.

Slade leaned forwards, thinking deeply. Beastboy, however incompetent he normally seemed, needed to be dealt with. But how?

* * *

Rose's eyes jerked open as her alarm clock sounded in all it's screeching volume. She reflexively reached over and smacked the snooze button, silencing the piercing noise. She closed her eyes again, sighing. After a moment's rest, she stretched languidly, kicking her bed covers off of her and smiling at the morning light shining against her window blinds. For a moment, none of her concerns about her past or future mattered at all.

She pulled herself up to a sitting position, and then reached over to turn off her alarm. She could hear her father in the kitchen, cooking breakfast for them. She was happy that he had said he would be home for her for a while. His work often kept him out of the house all hours of the night and day. He'd never been very forthright with answers about his work, and she'd stopped trying after a time. Sometimes he would leave, perhaps with a note for her explaining how long he would be, and then return precisely when he'd said he would.

Rose hopped down from her bed, and scratched herself groggily. She stepped out into the hallway, waving to her father as she picked up a towel from the linen closet and walked to the shower. After a refreshing shower, she pulled the towel around herself and walked quickly back to her room, drying off and donning her school uniform. She spent a few minutes brushing the knots out of her hair, before leaving her room once more and heading into the kitchen.

"G'morning dad. Thanks." Rose smiled at her father and took the plate of scrambled eggs and toast that he handed her.

"Good morning, Rose. Did you sleep well?" Slade sat down on the chair opposite his daughter, eating his food while watching her for any signs that things were not well.

Rose shrugged as she picked at her eggs, not terribly hungry. "I slept well, no interesting dreams or anything. How about you?"

"I didn't sleep. Rose, if Beastboy bothers you at school today, I want you to call me. I will see what I can do to make him stop." Slade looked across the table as he spoke, wanting her to understand that he was serious in this regard.

Slightly taken aback by the severity in her father's voice, Rose tried to alleviate his concerns. "He doesn't seem dangerous or anything. He's a superhero, dad. I'll just tell him to go away if he's still bothering me."

Slade nodded. "Very well, Rose. If he does not listen, call me. Teenaged superheroes are still human, like everyone else. Don't assume that he is a saint. I'll take your plate."

Rose handed her plate to her father, and idly moved the newspaper so that she could see the front page. It was a full-page spread on the Titans' victory over some as-yet-unnamed monster. The article was blandly written and droned on and on about the most uninteresting facts, but Rose found herself interested in one of the photos taken by a bystander.

The photo wasn't very good, but it was relatively clear and the paper had given it a fair amount of space. It depicted Beastboy, seemingly with his foot trapped in a pile of rubble. The monster was not in the photo, but somehow the picture made Rose feel very uneasy. She could almost swear that she'd seen it before, but she couldn't remember where. The lighting seemed wrong somehow. Rose reached across the table and picked up a pen that was sitting there unused. She drew on the picture, outlining the rubble and filling it in with black ink, shading the picture to look as if it was in the middle of the night.

Rose could feel that her father was watching her do this, but didn't think much of it. Finally, she put the pen down, and looked at the new image of Beastboy trapped in the dark, with his foot caught in rubble. Yes. Yes, she had seen this somewhere before. She felt uneasy, looking at the modified photo. Her body felt tense, as if she were in conflict, but she had no idea what over. She could almost hear Beastboy talking to her about something, but it was like trying to remember a dream. Suddenly, her father picked up the paper rather brusquely.

"Do not concern yourself with the Titans, Rose. They will do their job, fighting the monsters that occasionally escape, and you will do yours, going to school. You are now a few minutes late, due to your drawing." Slade rolled the paper up tightly and placed it into the trashcan.

Rose, sensing her father's obvious distrust of the Titans, simply sighed and left the table. After picking up her books from her room, she continued to the doorway. Her father was waiting for her there. "Bye dad, I'll call you if he's still around."

Her father halted her for a moment, looking at her silently. When he spoke, the irritation and severity of his previous statement was gone. "Rose, I apologize for being blunt. I just don't want you to be manipulated by the Titans. They have a certain type of celebrity in this city, and I don't want you to be hurt. Just be cautious."

Rose smiled as her father hugged her to him briefly. She nodded as he broke the hug. "Don't worry dad, I'll be careful. See you when I get home."

"Goodbye, my child."

* * *

Rose spent a thoroughly uninteresting day at school, filled with normal classes and normal teachers. Her friends teased her about Beastboy following her around all day, but were obviously just trying to make sure she wasn't falling for the weird boy. She laughed with them and assuaged their fears as best she could.

As the school day ended, Terra began the relatively short walk home, with her friends. As they passed by a police line, the girls stopped to look at the damage from the monster's rampage. Rose couldn't help but remember the photograph from the morning as she looked out over all the rubble. Ashley pushed back an errant red hair from her face, and gestured at all the damage.

"This wouldn't even have happened if the Titans weren't here. My dad says that ever since they moved in, there have been more and more supervillain attacks every year."

Shawna looked to be irritated with Ashley's distaste for the Titans. "Well it's not like they made the monster attack. If they hadn't been here, who knows how long it would have run around destroying things?"

"I heard that the witch, Raven or whatever, caused that memory blackout for everyone last year. You know, when everyone suddenly got sore, like we'd been standing up for days, but didn't know why?"

Shawna rolled her eyes, crossing her arms on her chest. "Whatever. Why would she do that? People don't just make a city sore for no reason. What do you think, Rose?"

Rose shrugged. She was watching a construction worker struggle with a load of bricks, trying to patch a damaged wall. She could tell that the rigging for the bricks had been shoddily constructed, it looked like it was about to fall. "I don't know. Beastboy was nice enough, but I guess they did chase the monster through town. It might have just left the city alone if they hadn't bothered it. Does that look safe, over there?"

Ashley looked over at the construction work. "Not really, but I don't know anything about construction. I'm sure he knows what he's doing, Rose. Why do you even care?"

It seemed to Rose that time slowed down, as the heavy stone bricks began to collapse. The workman was standing directly underneath the falling debris, as old and stressed mortar failed. Instinctively, she reached out her hand as if to catch the bricks, even though she was nearly forty yards away. As she did so, her hand suddenly glowed, and the bricks changed direction in mid air, falling twenty feet away from where they should have. Rose gasped, pulling her hand back and staring at it. Her friends looked at her, mouths agape.

"Rose... what was that? Did you just... what was that?" Shawna had taken a step away from Rose, seemingly suspicious of her.

"I don't know! I just... I didn't want him to get hit by the bricks, and they moved!" Terra felt panicked. There was no way she could have done that. It was impossible.

"Oh my God, you are one of them, aren't you? That green jerk was right, you're a metahuman!" Ashley looked angry. Rose knew that Ashley didn't like superheroes, but Rose was not a heroine.

"Ashley, Shawna, please! Please don't tell anyone! Promise me you won't tell anyone! Swear it!" Rose sounded more angry than she intended, but for some reason she was horrified that anyone might find out that this had happened.

Shawna nodded nervously. "Of course not, you're my friend. I won't tell anyone. Maybe it was just like a one-time thing."

Ashley shrugged. "Fine, I won't tell either, but go get a blood test for being a metahuman. Maybe they can fix you or something."

Rose forced a smile. "Thanks guys, I'll get it figured out. Nothing like this has ever happened before, I hope it's a one time thing too."

After a silent and awkward walk home, Rose left her friends and walked into her apartment building. She stepped over to the elevator, and got in, starting the ride to her apartment on the eighteenth floor. In the quiet of the elevator, Rose finally let herself think about what had happened. She'd moved earth. She wanted the bricks to move, and the bricks moved. What had happened?

What was she?

* * *

A/N: Ok, I know this chapter was fairly short, but I'm fine with it overall. Please review and tell me what you think, it's been a long time since I've written much of anything and I feel uncertain about the quality. I don't know how much time I'll have to write, but I'll try to keep the updates relatively frequent. Thanks for reading! 


	2. Tremor

Review Responses: 

Geork: Always nice to see another Terra fan. I like Terra, she's a more complex character than most of the others on the show. Thanks for the compliments, and I hope you enjoy this chapter as well.

Lambbaby: I'm glad you're enjoying it. I usually have to be spurred into releasing something, as I'm not very confident in my own writing. Slade as a father is frankly creepy to me, but that's why I did it.

Kayasuri-N: I was hoping to explain a bunch of plot holes in this. As for him cooking in full out evil costume, I agree that it's a scary picture.

TTFAN: Rose isn't dead in this comic, but she's still hidden from Slade's influence. I like Slade when he's creepy, so I'm glad he's coming through that way.

Ruroni Tyriel: I assure you that I'm not stealing your ideas. I haven't read you fic "Penance". I do wish you luck with it, though.

Shadow929: Thanks, I'm glad you like it.

Dr.evil99: A good review, as always. I do hope that I can build a tolerable story around the rather cliche idea, and I'm glad that it's good so far. I want to keep Slade being creepy, without him becoming an outright villain ahead of his time. As for Terra being Terra, or a new person, I'm not even sure yet. It keeps the story more interesting if I don't even know the ending.

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A/N: There has been fairly little readership of chapter one, but then again FFN has a weird thing about not listing the first chapter of a new story sometimes. It doesn't matter anyway, of course. Chapter two will hopefully be longer, but I haven't written it yet, so I can't tell you. Hope you enjoy it!

* * *

"I'm home, Daddy." Rose closed the door behind her, happy to be home from another day at school. It had been about a week since she'd accidentally moved the bricks in the construction site. Not much had changed in her life since; she had no more memory of her powers, and they hadn't activated themselves again, to her knowledge. Rose stepped forwards into the living room, finding her father there reading over some papers that looked like extremely complex schematics.

"Hello, Rose. Did your day at school go well?" Her father's voice was, as always, calm and even. He asked the question as if he was completely indifferent to her answer, but Rose knew that he always listened. He even seemed to listen to the things she didn't say; he always knew when she was hiding something.

Rose shrugged, sitting next to her father on the small sofa, setting her books down on the table, and picking up one of the schematics, trying to make sense of it. "It was ok. Ashley is still being weird and avoiding me, for whatever reason, and Mrs. Swiess gave us too much homework again."

Slade's voice remained even, though he seemed less disinterested than before. "It has been a few days now that your friend has been avoiding you. She hasn't told you why?"

"Um... I think she just... I don't know. I think she just doesn't like me as much as she used to."

Slade's voice grew a bit of an edge now, though nothing resembling a threat. "What happened between you to cause her feelings to change?"

Rose hesitated. She didn't like to lie to her father, and he was far too adept at seeing through her lies anyway. However, he obviously disliked the Titans, and possibly all metahumans. If he knew that she was--- that she might be one, then would he hate her? Would her leave her? Rose inwardly scolded herself. Of course he wouldn't leave her; he was her father. Rose tried to phrase her sentence delicately. "I... well, I kind of might have some kind of... I think I can... I might be a metahuman."

To Rose's surprise, her father seemed almost completely unfazed by her admission. "Why do you think that you may be metahuman?"

Rose placed the schematics page back on the table, and pulled her feet up onto the couch, turning towards her father. "Well, last week I sort of accidentally moved some bricks that were falling. They were going to hit a construction worker, and I just sort of reached out at them and they moved on their own. At least it saved the worker!"

Slade put his own papers down, and turned slightly towards Rose. "Did anyone see you do this?"

Rose shook her head. "Nobody but Ashley and Shawna, and I made them promise not to tell anyone. Shawna seems fine with it, but Ashley is all weird."

"She's avoiding you." Slade stated this as a fact.

Rose nodded. "Yeah, and she acted like I was a freak or something when it happened."

"Regardless of Ashley's antipathy, what do you intend to do if you are a metahuman?"

Rose hugged her legs close to her body, a little frightened by her father's lack of emotion. "Um... I don't know, Daddy. If I can move rocks, then maybe Beastboy was right about me. Maybe I was 'Terra'."

Her father looked at her from his good eye. "You would believe him simply because you have the same powers? Is it not possible that the Titans have a sort of psychic that can see metahumans, and know what powers they will develop?"

"Raven is sort of something like that, isn't she? People say different things about her. I heard she was a witch, and that she did something mysterious to the city a little before my memories start."

Slade nodded. "That is the impression that most people have. Perhaps it was Raven's fault that your memory is gone."

Rose scooted across the couch, sitting next to her father. She felt really uncomfortable with the conversation. She smiled slightly as her father put a comforting arm around her.

"Rose, I do not trust the Titans. Beastboy seems dangerously obsessed with you, and Raven seems to hold more power than any one person should. I understand your desire to learn more of your past, but I do not believe that they can help you."

Rose reached her arms around her father, hugging him. "Dad, you don't hate me for being a metahuman, do you?"

"I do not hate you at all, my child. However, you must be cautious with your powers. I have heard stories of young metahumans accidentally causing damage with their powers, and I do not wish the same on you. Now, go do the homework that you complained about. I will clean this up and prepare a meal."

Rose squeezed her father a little, smiling happily. "Ok, daddy. Come get me when dinner is ready."

She hopped up from the couch, and picked up her books as she walked to her room. Slade watched her leave, then organized the robotic schematics again, placing them in a folder for later refiling. He then leaned back, thinking. If Terra's powers were truly returning, it was quite possible that events would begin unfolding very quickly. Even in the case that her memories did not return, the Titans would certainly want to 'help' her if they found that she was indeed the same person. Their interference would complicate everything.

The only solution would be to keep people from learning that Terra was a metahuman.

* * *

Rose walked casually to school in the morning sunshine. It had taken her hours, but she'd finished all the work for school. Shawna was next to her, but they weren't talking much. Ashley had made an excuse to Shawna, saying that she couldn't leave yet and to go without her.

Shawna finally broke the silence. "So I know you are weird about it but I want to ask anyway, have you done anything else with your... like... meta powers?"

Rose smiled nervously. "Um, not really. I kind of haven't tried. It makes me nervous."

"If I was a metahuman, I know I'd be trying that stuff out all the time. It would be so cool to be able to do shoot fire, fly, and that kind of stuff. Even just moving rocks around like you could be cool." Shawna kept her voice low, but there was no one else on the street at the moment anyway. They were a little early for school.

"But what if I messed up or something? I mean, most the building here at least have stone in them, what if I accidentally broke one?"

"You aren't Wonder Woman, Rose. There is no way you could move a whole building." Shawna looked around, then quickly pulled Rose into a small alley between two apartment complexes. Shawna knelt down and picked up a small rock from the ground, grinning. "Come one, try to pick this up! You know it would be cool."

Rose looked up and down the alley, and then up towards the sky, looking for people. "I don't know... I don't want anyone to see me. I mean, Ashley already thinks I'm a freak."

Shawna rolled her eyes. "Ashley is just stupid. Her dad's car has been picked up and thrown at monsters by the Titans like six times. He's just unlucky I guess. But anyway, come on, I want to see if you can do it."

Rose sighed, looking at her friend holding the rock. "Ok, but don't blame me if I like blow up the world or something."

Rose raised her hands, like at the construction site, and tried to move the rock. Nothing happened. "Uh... maybe it was just once."

Shawna looked at the pebble skeptically. "Maybe it's because the guy was in danger or something. I mean if you hadn't moved those bricks, he probably would have died. You're like a superhero. Come on, try again."

Reaching out to the pebble, Rose focused on moving it. She tried to just want the rock to move, like she had with the bricks. Suddenly, her hands glowed faintly, and the rock hovered an inch or so above Shawna's hand. Shawna's eyes got wide.

"Wow! You so are a metahuman! You picked it up with your mind or something!" Shawna touched the rock, pushing it sideways through the air.

Rose smiled a little. Even though it was strange, and she was still worried that someone might see, it was kind of cool to be able to do this. She concentrated, and the rock moved a little, sliding upwards as if ignoring gravity.

Shawna laughed, then looked around. There was a plastic trashcan that someone had carelessly left outside a few dozen feet away. Shawna pointed to it. "Ok, so see if you can throw the rock at that trashcan."

Rose tried to guage the distance, as if she was physically throwing the stone, and then focused her power a little. The stone sparked yellow and flew through the air. It missed the trashcan by nearly five feet, skittering along the paved alley and into the next street. Terra grinned anyway. "I guess I'm not really good at this."

"So what? It's so cool that you can do it at all. You should so be a Titan or something, even if you had to hang around with that dork Beastboy."

Rose shook her head. "No way, I couldn't be a Titan. They fight huge monsters and evil villains and stuff. All I can do it throw rocks. I wouldn't be any help."

Shawna shrugged. "Still, it's cool that you can do that. Maybe you will be like the next Powergirl in a few years."

"Powergirl? Not me. I don't have the boobs." Rose laughed, walking with Shawna out of the alleyway.

Shawna laughed also. "Yeah, if she wasn't super strong, she wouldn't be able to stand up."

* * *

Rose sat in class, idly doodling on her notebook as her teacher droned on and on about physics. She felt strange, knowing conclusively now that she had metahuman powers. It didn't make a tremendous amount of difference in her life, but still just knowing that she was different from her classmates made her feel outcast. Of course, nobody knew besides Ashley and Shawna.

A hundred yards away, on the rooftop of a neighboring building, Robin pulled his small pair of binoculars away from his eyes. He blinked a few times, tired of watching Terra sit in class. It had been a quiet week since the strange monster had attacked, and he'd become interested in investigating Terra's reappearance. Beastboy had come back after talking with her, to help fight the monster. After words, he'd told everyone that she didn't remember anything, and that she didn't seem to want to. Robin wanted to make sure. Terra's powers were dangerous, and if she didn't remember the past, then she probably wouldn't remember how to keep control of her powers.

"Voyeurism, Robin? I expected more from you."

Robin turned quickly, standing as he did so, to face the enemy. He'd recognized the voice instantly. "Slade."

Slade stood roughly fifty feet away, calmly speaking, as if no danger was present. "Very good, Robin; you remember me. It has been some time since we've met."

"What are you doing here?" Robin did not take any chances, he'd already drawn his staff from his belt, and stood at the ready. He knew that Slade could not possibly be here for anything good.

"The same as you, I'd imagine. Keeping an eye on an old... friend." Slade stepped casually forward, looking down at the high school.

Robin kept himself tense, ready for combat. "I won't let you hurt her again."

Slade turned towards Robin again. "And what would you do instead, Robin? Try to restore her memories? Coerce her into joining the Titans again? Force her to fight the monsters and dangerous people that your little team seems to attract?"

"I... don't know."

"Mmm. I am glad see you still think things through, Robin." Slade walked across the roof, stopping at the other end. "Do not do anything foolish, Robin. If the girl wants to see the Titans, she will do so. Otherwise, I would advise leaving her alone. We'll be in touch." Slade stepped off the edge of the roof, and disappeared.

Robin ran to the edge to look, but unsurprisingly saw nothing. He sighed. He didn't know what to do about Terra. Slade may have been right about one thing; forcing or coercing her into joining the Titans again would be cruel. She'd have to come on her own.

* * *

Rose entered the cafeteria at school, and immediately knew something was up. No one was being obvious about it, but for some reason half the students were looking at her or watching her, while trying to look like they weren't. She walked over to her normal table, and sat down with Shawna, a little nervous from all the looks.

"Um... what's going on?" Rose tried to look casual as she opened her bagged lunch.

Shawna looked worried. "There are rumors that you are a metahuman. I so promise that it wasn't me, though."

Rose shook her head. "No, she told? I mean, I know that Ashley doesn't like metahumans, but she wouldn't have told anyone... would she?"

"I don't know. She won't talk to me because I still talk to you. She's so stupid sometimes." Shawna shrugged, sipping her coke.

Rose looked around. Murakami high school had a fairly small number of students, and arranged the lunch schedule so that no more than fifty were in the cafeteria at a time. People looked away as she met their eyes; something was definitely going on. Rose saw that Ashley was at another table, talking in a hushed manner with a few boys. The boys were throwing furtive glances her way. Rose decided to find out what was going on directly. She stood and walked over to Ashley, pulling her away from the table by the arm.

"Ashley, please tell me you didn't spread that rumor that I'm a metahuman."

Ashley looked away from Rose, obviously irritated. "Look, I'm not the freak here. You're the one with the dangerous powers, you'll probably be a supervillain or something."

Rose was keenly aware of the other students staring at her; Ashley was speaking very loudly and they all doubtlessly heard. "I'm not dangerous! I can't even do that much! All I do is throw rocks around!"

"Yeah, now. It won't be long before you are trying to take over the world, or smashing houses with boulders, or who knows what. I don't think anyone wants a metahuman here anyway. Look! Everyone is freaked out by you!" Ashley was shouting now; presumably angry at Rose for no other reason than her being a metahuman.

Rose looked at the rest of the lunchroom. Everyone was staring at her. Some of them looked afraid, others were just looking at her as if she was different from them. She was no different from yesterday, but they all were staring. "Guys, come on, I'm not... It's not dangerous, I'm just... I can just pick up rocks. Stop staring, come on."

There was whispering, as people talked about her. She could see the judgment in their eyes; she could see that she was 'different' now. She felt embarrassed and betrayed. She turned towards Ashley. "Why did you do this? I thought you were my friend."

Ashley frowned. "You don't have any friends."

Something about that sentence sparked anger in Rose. She felt her hands form into fists, and she instinctively swung, punching Ashley hard in the nose. Ashley, completely unexpecting of such a sudden attack, fell over backwards, looking stunned. Rose stepped forwards, her vision slightly yellowed. Her eyes were glowing brightly, and her hands shimmered with yellow light as well.

Suddenly, the concrete walls of the school began to shudder and shake. Rose Turned, looking around at the room. She jumped from surprise as the tiled floor audibly cracked. There was a sudden panic, as most of the children ran terrified from the room. Shawna stayed, trying to walk towards Rose despite the slightly vibrating floor. Ashley also stayed, horrified by the situation, and the glowing angry girl standing over her.

Rose looked down at her former friend. Ashley's face was wet with tears, and stricken with terror. She turned towards Shawna, and saw that even her more loyal friend looked worried. She didn't want this. She didn't want to scare people. She felt something slipping, she could feel her powers activating on their own. The stone in the walls felt like a part of her; the floor felt attached to her feet.

"No! No, I have to get out of here! Shawna, Ashley, run!" Rose tried to reign in her powers; she tried to stop the walls from shaking. Rose was only tangentially aware of Shawna pulling the petrified Ashley away, running across the jagged and broken floor. Rose's efforts to stop the walls were failing, as the mortar and concrete began to crack and chip.

Rose focused on a section of the wall for a moment, and it shattered outwards, covering the grass outside with chunks of cement. Rose ran through the hole, hoping she could lessen the damage by her wild powers. She looked around, seeing a small crowd of students, watching the cafeteria shave and thunder. Rose looked down at her glowing hands, and then at the eyes of the students.

She saw fear.

* * *

Rose finally stopped running, leaning heavily against a wall and panting. She could still see the eyes of her classmates on her; still feel the stares. She was wet with sweat. She had run for what had felt like hours. Finally, she allowed herself to look around and see where she was.

It was a moment before she could even piece together what the place used to be. The area was scarred by what was obviously metahuman combat. Rose was standing next to a large pile of twisted metal rails and rubble. She finally realized that this used to be an amusement park, though it looked to be long abandoned now. Rose felt strangely at home, though she was fairly certain she'd never been here before.

Rose idly walked around, her legs still sore from running. The summer sun was hot, and the broken and twisted rubble gave little in the way of shade. She walked past the old game shacks, cringing slightly at the rotted plush animals staring at her through vacant glass eyes. Feeling uneasy with the staring eyes, she left the game stands, heading towards the nearest open building.

The crunch of glass under her shoes made her stop, letting her eyes adjust to the sudden darkness inside the building. She was in some sort of fun house; though at the moment it was just a long hallway full of cracked or broken mirrors. She felt uneasy, almost scared, as she walked down the hallway. Broken and fractured reflections of her face and uniform glinted off of the glass shards, giving her the impression of being watched.

Rose stepped into what must have been a large circular room. Now, daylight streamed in from what looked like a recently made hole in the wall. Rose looked into the shattered mirrors, feeling strange. Her reflection was shattered as well, the broken glass giving a distorted look. Rose knelt down, looking at the strange claw marks in the floor. She felt weird, exploring an old ruin so soon after running from her own powers, but the marks on the floor felt significant.

Rose sighed. There was no way to tell what kind of animal left the scratches, nor what kind of combat had wrecked this place. She stepped outside, picking her way through the rubble, and squinted in the bright light. In the distance, she saw Titans Tower, standing defiantly in the middle of the bay. The tower evoked an odd array of emotions, ranging from homesickness to betrayal.

The ground shivered slightly, as Rose felt her powers fluctuate. She closed her eyes, trying to focus and block out her emotion. As she calmed herself, the tremor stopped. Rose looked down at her hands, remembering the near catastrophe at her school.

"I need to get help. I can't control this alone." Rose spoke out loud to herself, then felt a bit foolish for doing so. However, speaking did make her feel a little less alone, and so she continued.

"My father said that he could help me if I needed it. He's not metahuman though, and I... I am, I guess. Shawna doesn't need me wrecking her life by relying on her for everything." Rose sighed.

She looked again towards Titans Tower. "The Titans haven't bothered me in a while. They all have powers too; maybe they can give me some advice or something. Even if dad is right, and they try to force me to join them or something, at least I know that I can tear the tower apart with an earthquake, or something."

Rose stopped herself with that sentence. Why had she thought that? What good would tearing the tower apart do? She shook her head, trying to remove the thought. "Of course, the tower is on an island, and I'm not in good enough shape to swim the whole way."

She sat down for a moment, thinking. There was no ferry to the island, nor any sort of public access that she was aware of. Rose assumed that the Titans just flew there; superheroes could fly, right? If she was a metahuman, maybe she could fly.

Rose stood up, closing her eyes and standing with her arms outstretched. She tried to will herself to fly, like she had willed the stones to move in the alley with Shawna. She tried for a few seconds, but nothing happened. She couldn't help but feel disappointed.

"What a stupid power. I have to be metahuman, and everyone hates me, but all I can do is throw rocks." Rose sat down again, ignoring the dirt getting all over her school uniform. She angrily glared at a small piece of rubble, picking it up with her power. There was no one around anyway, and she was frustrated with the inaccessibility of the tower. She focused, moving the stone around slowly, trying to find a good way to control it. She floated the stone over to her, and smiled a little, feeling a bit more confident.

She reached into her small shirt pocket, pulling out her school identification card. She placed it on top of the stone, and flew the stone around again, trying to balance the card on top. Finally, she brought it back to her, and looked at the card sitting on top of the stone.

Maybe. It was possible. It could be done, if she was lucky.

Rose stood up again, focusing on a patch of concrete walkway. The ground shook slightly as a large chunk of the walkway rose into the air. Rose carefully stepped on to the stone, bouncing a little to test her weight. The rock didn't move while she stood on it. She focused again, moving herself and the rock upwards a little. It felt strange to stand on a moving surface without holding on to anything. Rose knelt on the stone, and then held on to the edges, trying to make herself more stable.

"Well, here goes." Rose focused again, and the stone moved out over the water. She tried to ignore the sudden fear rising inside her, as the water rushed by beneath the stone. She focused on keeping the rock steady, as the speed increased, propelling her across the bay and towards Titans Tower.

Midway across, Rose suddenly realized that she wasn't going to make it. The stone was beginning to crumble away as she moved it. Her handholds were little more than bits of broken concrete, and the earth underneath the layer of pavement was nearly gone. Rose held on as long as she could, but she was only two thirds of the way to the tower before the rock finally fell apart, dumping her unceremoniously into the water.

She sputtered and coughed as she came back to the surface. She began swimming, trying to ignore her straining legs, still fatigued from running across most of the city. It wasn't long before she reached the shore, as it were. Rose pulled herself from the water, standing on rocky coast of the Titans' island. There was a large training course sort of area nearby, but she wasn't interested in that. Instead, she began walking towards the Tower, and then around the wall, hoping to find a doorway.

The front of the tower, or what Rose assumed to be the front, had an enormous set of double doors, nearly fifteen feet high. Rose really couldn't help but feel that the doors were a little pretentious. There was a smaller door set into the wall next to them, however, and Rose felt more comfortable approaching that one. Next to the door was a small keypad, and some kind of slot for some kind of device. Fairly uncertain as to how to react to all this, Rose simply pressed a few random numbers on the pad. The keypad flashed red and played a short buzzing noise, but nothing else happened. Having little other option, she pressed another number, and got the same result. Sighing, she typed another one, fully aware of the futility. This time, however, she heard an alarm sound inside the tower.

Rose stepped back from the door, not wanting the Titans to come out and attack her. A few seconds passed before she heard the alarm cease. The door opened, revealing a pale, short girl with an opaque black leotard and heavy blue cloak on. The girl's fine hair blew gently in the slight breeze, and her face wore an expression of surprise, which was quickly replaced by a look of utter indifference. Her voice, however, still bore a hint of disbelief.

"It's you."

* * *

A/N: Ok! Second chapter done. I do apologize for the continuing shortness of these chapters, but I'm having a bit of a hard time finding time to write. Anyway, thanks for reading. Please review if you feel that you have something to say. The third chapter should take no more time than this one. See you next chapter! 


	3. Rumblings

Review Responses: 

Erato: It's pretty uncertain what happened between BB and Terra during season two. They had a date, and were ready to kiss, which is a pretty big step in a show aimed at six year olds. That, added to the fairly obsessive way that Beastboy was acting in the final episode, leads me to believe that he's still very much into Terra. I'm glad you are enjoying the story, and I hope you don't mind that this story may not have much in the way of poetic romance.

Clio: Thanks for the review! Though it's not planned to be an epic, it's not exactly supposed to be a short fanfiction either. I like Terra, and I like 'Rose'. I hope that I can write a complex character like her properly. I hope you continue to enjoy the story.

CalliopeMused: I am of course glad that you like the story. I respect you as a writer and thus value your opinions. I've already spoken with you in regards to this review, however, so I'll shut up. Enjoy this chapter!

TTFAN: Nope. This Rose is just sort of named after her. She's estranged.

Dr. Evil 99: Poor Terra is having problems keeping friends, which would be familiar to her if she had any memories. Powergirl is an exemplification of comic book women, and thus deserves mention. Hope you enjoy the next chapter of course.

Kayasuri-n: They are so short. :P GLad you are enjoying the fic of course.

Lambbaby: I'm not sure if Rose would be worse off meeting Raven or Beastboy at the door. Both have issues, on basically opposite ends of the spectrum. Robin's voyeurism is creepy, yes, but he just takes after his dad. Hope you enjoy this chapter as well.

Rurouni Tyriel: I'm glad you are enjoying the story.

loveatfirstterra: Thanks! Sorry it took so long!

Geork: I'm writing from the show, so don't worry about the comics. Anything about the past not covered in the show, I'm making up, basically. Sorry the new chapter is so late, but I hope you enjoy it anyway.

* * *

"It's you."

Rose suddenly felt very aware of her situation. She had come to Titans' Tower, uninvited and with no warning, and was now standing in front of a real superheroine. She was drenched with sea water, and was wearing a school uniform. Rose felt ridiculous.

"I... uh... Hi."

The girl in front of her changed expressions from indifference to irritation. Her voice was even, though there was an undercurrent of suspicion. "Beastboy said you were back. He also said that you said you weren't Terra, and wanted nothing to do with us. Why are you here?"

Rose frowned. She hadn't expected a celebration or anything, but something in this person's demeanor was very cold and standoffish. "Um... Well, I think I have... I think I'm a metahuman, and I don't really know what I'm doing with my... power, I guess. I was wondering if maybe one of you knew what it was like to be out of control and could help me."

Rose thought that the girl's expression softened for a moment, but she seemed to catch herself and steel her eyes again. There was less of an edge to her voice when she spoke again. "... I may know how you are feeling. However, I can't... let you in. Your powers are dangerous."

"My powers? You don't even know what they are." Rose didn't understand why this person was being so cold to her. She hadn't done anything wrong. Well, besides trespassing.

The girl hesitated a moment, and Rose thought that her eyes glowed slightly, but couldn't be certain. "You don't... feel like Terra."

Rose frowned. "That's because I'm not. Beastboy is the only person who thinks that."

"Well, I will let you into the tower. At the very least, we need to talk. I am Raven. Follow me." Raven turned, allowing Rose to enter the tower.

Rose stepped into the tower, looking around at the high ceilings in the entrance chamber. She'd been here before, with Beastboy, but she'd been focusing more on his unending chatter at the time, and not on the grand size of the place. Rose followed the silent Raven as she walked through the entrance hall and into the elevator at the end. She pressed a button and the doors closed.

The silence in the elevator was oppressive. Rose didn't know what to say to someone as famous and powerful as Raven. Every time she ventured a glance at the strange gray skinned girl, she seemed to be deep in thought, and Rose didn't want to disturb her. Plus, despite inviting her into the tower, Raven still seemed very cold and almost hostile towards her. Rose wasn't sure why Raven was being so standoffish.

After what seemed like an eternity, the elevator beeped and the doors opened, revealing the Titans' living area. Raven walked forwards silently, and Rose had little option but to follow her. Raven sat down on one end of the semicircular couch, and Rose felt uncomfortable any closer than the other end. They faced each other across fifteen feet of floor space. Both girls sat silently for a moment.

Raven was the first to speak. "I have to admit that Beastboy was right; you do look like Terra. Your voice is also similar. However, he said that you don't believe you are Terra. What is your name?"

Rose jumped slightly at the sudden sound, and then forced a smile; trying to make herself feel more comfortable. "Wow, I didn't realize he'd never asked my name. I'm Rose Wilson. I don't really have a superhero name like Raven or anything."

"Raven isn't a pseudonym; it's my real name." Raven's voice was curt, and her eyes seemed to be staring into Rose's soul. Rose felt extremely uncomfortable. "Regardless, you say you have metahuman abilities? What sort of ability?"

Rose felt a bit more focused, the distractions of the girl's strange demeanor wiped away by the mention of her new abilities. "I... can sort of move earth. I think Terra had the same thing, right? If I kind of focus and just think about wanting some dirt or a rock to move, it does."

Raven nodded. "You also said that you weren't in control of it."

"Yeah... I kind of got mad at school today, and the stone walls shook and started falling apart. Also when I tried to fly myself over here on a rock, the rock broke apart and I fell into the water." Rose wasn't' sure why she was being so open about all this. Despite the cold exterior, however, it felt as though Raven was listening to her with a sympathetic ear. Rose hoped it wasn't an illusion.

Raven sat silently for a moment, then nodded. "I've heard that many metahumans have problems controlling their powers at first. I have to meditate daily to control mine. Your powers are very similar to Terra's, if you are telling the truth about them. Do you think that it's possible that you are Terra?"

Rose shook her head. "No, I'd remember it. I mean, I don't remember much, but I think I'd remember it if I was a superhero."

"Don't remember much? What do you mean?"

Rose smiled. "Oh, sorry. I was in a car accident a while ago, and I have amnesia from before that. I can remember facts and stuff. Mathematics, school information, that sort of thing. But I can't remember anything about my life. My dad has told me some stuff, but he's always so vague and doesn't like to talk about it."

Raven didn't say anything for a minute or two, and the silence began to press on Rose again. Finally, Raven broke it. "We have some time before the others get back from eating pizza. If you would like, I can see what I can do to restore your memory."

"Really? You could fix it? I hate not remembering anything." Rose felt excited, though also a bit freaked out by the idea of this near stranger messing with her mind. Her father's warnings came back to her, and she was slightly afraid that he may be right. However, her memories were too important to refuse the possible cure based on random suspicions.

Raven nodded. "I will try. Close your eyes. It will feel strange at first, but just try to keep your mind open and let me in."

Rose closed her eyes, and took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. The air around her suddenly felt colder, and she could feel the hairs on her arms and neck standing on end. There was a odd feeling in her head, similar to pressure, but clearly not in a physical sense. Rose tried to allow Raven to do what she needed to, by trying to clear her mind and open it, as little sense as it made to her.

Rose felt Raven enter her mind, and she saw flashes of the past few months. Shawna laughing, her first report card, her father training, the amusement park, and Ashley's terrified face as her powers were going wild. Rose could almost feel Raven's revulsion at the last memory, and suddenly wanted her out. As soon as Rose felt that Raven should leave, she was gone, and Rose opened her eyes again. Raven was hovering above the couch, in a lotus position. A large, birdlike black shape descended from the ceiling and moved into Raven, and she opened her eyes again. She looked suspicious of Rose.

"Your mind is... different. If you are Terra, you don't have the same mind, or the same aura. I am willing to believe that you aren't the same girl, even if you were Terra at one point. However, I couldn't find your older memories. I don't know if they will ever come back."

Rose stood up, feeling strange as Raven hovered nearby. "What you saw... with that girl looking scared... I wasn't trying to hurt her."

Raven said nothing, just looking at Rose and waiting for an explanation.

"She... she had told my school that I was a metahuman. I got angry at her and punched her. Then my powers kind of went crazy and the room started collapsing. That's when she was looking up at me like that. I swear that I didn't mean to hurt her."

"Aside from punching her, you mean." Raven's voice was cold, but there was a twinge of sarcastic joking in it.

Rose smiled a little, despite the uncomfortable feeling of being here with this strange girl. "Yeah, aside from that. Anyway... what do you think I should do? I can't go back to school, and my apartment is probably covered in reporters or police or something."

"That raises a question. You are a high school student with no job and no memories from more than a few months ago. How do you afford an apartment?" Raven broke the lotus position, stepping to the floor. Rose felt better now that she was no longer flying.

"I live with my father. We have an apartment a few blocks from my school."

Raven narrowed her eyes. "Well, that is interesting. Terra's parents were both dead."

Rose smiled. "See? I'm not her. Hey, can I use your phone? I want to call dad and tell him where I am. It just occurred to me that he might be worried."

Raven coldly gestured towards a phone handset sitting on the coffee table. She made no indication that she intended to leave the room while Rose made her call. Rose picked up the phone, and dialed half of her number, before realizing that the line might be tapped while the school and police investigated her. Instead, she clicked the hangup button, and dialed Shawna's number. The phone rang twice, and then Shawna answered.

"H-Hello?" Shawna sounded very uncertain.

"Hi Shawna. It's Rose. Um, I was wondering what happened after I... left school today." Rose tried to keep her tone light and friendly.

"Rose? The caller ID says the number is blocked. Where are you?"

Rose laughed. "I'm in Titans' Tower. I came over here to see if I could get help with my powers. I guess they let you go home early? It can't be three yet."

"Yeah, they made us all leave. School is out for a few days while they repair the cafeteria. Your apartment had a bunch of policemen around it for a while, but they aren't there now. I went to see if you ever got back, but your dad was the only one there, and he freaks me out. Anyway, he said that you weren't home, but if I talked to you, to tell you to come home as soon as you can."

"Um... if he calls you, don't tell him where I went. He doesn't really like the Titans. Anyway, thanks Shawna. If you see Ashley, tell her I'm sorry." Rose felt strange talking to Shawna like this. She felt like they were worlds apart now.

Shawna seemed a bit unsure as well. "I will. I'll call her in a while and see how she is. I'm glad you're ok. You're still my friend, ok? Come see me when you get everything taken care of."

"Ok. Bye." Rose hung up the phone, and sat silently for a moment.

Raven looked at her, seemingly deciding on something. "You may wish to leave. The other Titans will be back in a few minutes. They just left the pizza place. If they came back to find you here, it may be... overwhelming to you."

Rose nodded. "Yeah, I should probably go. How do I get off of the island?"

Raven walked over to Rose, looking a little uncertain as well. Her voice bore a hint of warning. "Try not to move. Don't worry; you won't get hurt."

Rose tried not to move as some black shape went out from raven and surrounded her. For a moment, she found herself in a freezing cold black void, with nothing around her. She didn't have time to react, however, as She suddenly found herself standing on the shore, across the bay, with Raven beside her. "That is the easiest way. I can't tell you how the others will react, should you come back to Titans' Tower. I will not tell them you came by today unless you want me to."

Rose shook her head. "No, don't tell them. Beastboy was being really annoying last time, and I don't want him to come to my school again."

Raven seemed to almost smile. "I definitely know how you feel." In another moment, the black power covered her, and Raven was gone.

Rose sighed, walking up the shore and onto the nearest surface street. She recognized the area. She had about half an hour's walk to get home, and no money for a taxi. At least her uniform had dried.

* * *

Rose sighed, looking at her school as she walked past it. There were policemen and tape around the opening in the cafeteria wall, and tape barring entrance to school grounds. She didn't feel threatened by the police, for some reason. Having her powers, and knowing that she could at the least fly a short distance by riding a rock, made her feel as if the police didn't mean anything to her anyway.

Still, seeing the school closed and lonely made her realize what she'd done. In getting angry and destroying property, she had effectively shunned all of her friends and made herself even further outcast than just having the powers in the first place. Ashley, previously a very good friend, would probably never speak to her again. Shawna was all weirded out, and Rose couldn't really say that she felt any better herself.

Rose looked up at her apartment building, sighed, and then entered. She could feel the staff of the building watching her as she entered, but she didn't say anything to them. The elevator was thankfully empty and opened immediately, sparing her an uncomfortable wait.

After a long and uneventful ride up the elevator, Terra walked down the short hallway to her apartment. She noticed with a start that the door was ajar. Her father never left the door open. He was extremely secretive about people coming in. Her curiosity overpowering her caution, Rose crept towards the door, listening as best she could.

"-- don't care, Mr. Wilson. What you think that your daughter is capable of doesn't matter. We have to investigate and metahuman threats immediately." Rose didn't recognize the voice, but his official manner made her worry.

"As I've told you, Agent Fite, I don't know where she is or even if she will return." Rose's father's voice was cold and even, as usual, but there was a hint of irritation and anger there that Rose had learned to pick up on. "You understand, don't you? You have a daughter."

Agent Fite's voice changed; obviously he'd never told Slade about his daughter. "I don't know what you are talking about."

Slade spoke slowly, and the tone of his voice made even Rose's skin crawl. "Of course you do. Anita is 16 herself, in fact. Your little... 'Empress', I believe you call her. Are you certain that she is ok, Agent Fite? Leaving her home alone while you travel across the country to harass me is dangerous."

Agent Fite seemed to hesitate a moment. "I'm sure she's fine. She can handle herself."

"Can she? Perhaps you should go home and check on her."

Rose could hear the fear in Agent Fite's voice, even though he was trying to hide it. "I will send someone here periodically to check for her. I'll see you again."

"I have no doubt, Agent Fite." Rose stepped away from the door, standing inside a nearby alcove. She saw Agent Fite walk by, a fairly well-built man in his early forties. She heard her father call from the door to the apartment. "Agent Fite, one last thing. Tell Anita that the new wallpaper in her bedroom looks nice."

Rose jumped slightly as her father closed the door to her apartment. Agent Fite had apparently not noticed her as he rushed by, and she heard the elevator door close, ferrying him downwards. Rose shuddered. Who was that? Her father was strange, yes, but... it sounded like he'd been threatening that guy. Rose frowned. Something weird was going on, and not just her powers. Maybe she was being paranoid, with everything that had happened today. Maybe she was seeing something that wasn't there. But still, the fear in Agent Fite's voice, and the strange demeanor that her father was exhibiting... she couldn't be certain.

Rose came out of the small alcove, and unlocked the door to her apartment, stepping inside quietly. She called out, hoping that her father wouldn't think it was Agent Fite again. "Daddy? I'm home. I'm sorry it took so long."

Her father entered the foyer, looking calm and relaxed, despite the tense conversation that had just taken place. "I heard about an incident at your school today, my dear. It seems you don't quite know how to control yourself."

Rose shivered involuntarily. She suddenly felt uncomfortable. She walked past her dad, towards her room. "Ashley told everyone at my school that I was metahuman, and I kind of got mad at her. I accidentally wrecked the school, and I ran away to sort things out."

"Where did you run to, exactly? It's not safe to wander the streets alone." Slade's voice bore only a hint of accusation, and only cursory concern for her wandering the street.

"I.. just kind of ran away. I was at a wrecked amusement park for a while, and I sort of tested out my powers a little there, I guess." Rose sat on her bed, looking down at the floor. She really hated lying to her father, and leaving out the visit to the Titans was close enough.

Slade sat next to her, and when he spoke again he seemed less tense. "Do you know who that was? I know you heard me speaking with him. He was Agent Fite, with a law enforcement branch of the government that deals with metahumans. You have to be cautious of your abilities from now on."

Rose sighed. "You know, don't you?"

Slade said nothing.

"Ok, yes, I went to Titans' Tower. You know I don't like to lie, but you hate them, and I didn't want you to get mad."

"What happened with the Titans?" Her father's voice was cold and calculated as normal. Today, however, it seemed so alien. Rose was beginning to see why her friends were so hesitant to come to her house.

Rose tried to appear as if it made perfect sense and was completely normal for her to have visited the Titans. "Well, Raven was the only one there. We just kind of talked about my powers and about Terra. She tried to help me remember my past, but whatever she tried didn't work. You don't hate me, do you?"

Her father put his arm around her shoulders, trying to comfort her. "Of course I don't hate you. I am simply concerned. The real question is: What now? Now that you cannot go back to school, and that you are known to various people as a new metahuman, what do you intend?"

Rose looked at the floor, uncertain of what to say. Everything she could think to do could cause all kinds of problems. Working through the options in her mind, she sat silently for a few moments.

"Rose, I will prepare dinner. Take some time to clear your thoughts. I will not pressure you to make any decisions right away." Slade rose, and left the room, closing her door behind him.

Rose sat in the silence of her room, her mind effectively blank. It had been an exceedingly long day, and all the stress had finally caught up with her. She tried to make a list of her problems, hoping that they would seem more manageable if she did.

First and foremost, she was a metahuman. Her powers weren't exactly under control, and so this was a big problem. No one really trusted any metahumans other than the big name heroes, like Superman or Wonder Woman.

Secondly, she couldn't go back to school, and her friends would probably act really weird around her now. This sounded ridiculous, even to Rose, but it was important. With no school, she'd be home alone with her thoughts all day, and go crazy. Without friends, she really had no one to lean on.

Third, she was apparently under investigation by the government. Thinking about it, it didn't seem that unreasonable. A girl freaks out and breaks open a hole in a wall at her school using her mind, and people get suspicious. Not knowing how to deal with his one, Rose continued.

Fourth, the Teen Titans now sort of knew she was around. Whether or not Raven actually told them didn't matter. If there were suddenly earthquakes or stone buildings being wrecked, Rose felt certain that they would suspect her.

Lastly, her father was being really strange. The way he'd threatened that officer, let alone that the police were apparently not watching her apartment, made Rose wonder what her dad was hiding. If Agent Fite hadn't wanted him to know about his daughter, then how did Slade know? Rose felt strange now, thinking about her father. She really didn't know that much about him. He had some job that she didn't know any specifics about, he often read over strange engineering diagrams, he trained himself in various martial arts for hours a day sometimes, and he was threatening government agents. It was just too strange.

Rose suddenly felt extremely tired, all of the day's activity catching up to her. Choosing to forgo dinner, she lay back on her bed, and fell asleep quickly.

* * *

Rose awoke to another morning, seemingly no different than any other. She sat up and stretched, then looked down at her dirty school uniform, and sighed. She stood up, groggily looking around the room. Finally snapping out of her sleepy daze, she walked over to her closet, pulling out a normal skirt and t-shirt. She quickly changed clothes, and stepped out of her room.

The apartment was completely silent. Rose walked to the kitchen, having skipped dinner last night and feeling hungry. A note on the fridge caught her eye.

"Rose, I have business to attend to, and I may not be back for a few days. Do not open the door for anyone. Do not answer the phone. You may call your friends, but do not leave the apartment unless necessary. I will return when I am able. --Slade."

Rose sighed. He'd said that he didn't have any work any time soon. Something unexpected must have happened at the office, or wherever he worked. With nothing pressing to do, Rose walked over to the front door, opened it, and picked up the newspaper from the hallway. Closing and locking the door again, she tossed the paper on the kitchen table, and fixed a bowl of cereal. Sitting down, she opened the paper to the front page.

"SCHOOL FOR SUPERVILLAINS? MURAKAMI HIGH DAMAGED IN METAHUMAN ACCIDENT" Rose's eyes widened at the front page headline. She read the article quickly. There was very little information of any use; just a vague retelling of the event and a few quotes from people at the school. There were photos of Shawna and Ashley, though they weren't being singled out; they were always in a crowd of students. Rose wasn't identified in the article, since she was a minor, but the article was definitely geared towards sensationalism, calling her a supervillain of all things.

Most of the quotes that had been printed were pretty negative. Rose felt betrayed reading them; most of the people had been acquaintances at least, if not friends. Reading the paper made her realize that going back to Murakami was impossible. Her life was forever changed. She sighed again, the silence of the apartment and the sensationalist newspaper making her feel even more alone. She needed to get out.

Since her dad wasn't there anyway, Rose decided to just leave. She didn't have anywhere to go really, so she just ambled out of the apartment, and down the street. Murakami High was still being treated as a crime scene, with yellow tape barring off large sections of the school. Rose gave the school a wide berth, heading downtown. Not much was going on, the streets weren't empty, but it wasn't crowded either. Rose walked in and out of random shops, looking objects that caught her eye, even though she didn't really have any money.

She was admiring the craftsmanship on a small glass trinket when she heard a loud crash outside. She barely had the presence of mind to place the item back on the shelf before running outside to investigate. People ran past her in a blind panic, and yet Rose ran against the tide, breaking through the crowd to find herself witnessing yet another metahuman combat.

What looked like a large, stone man was sitting in what looked like a large dent in the side of a building. Rose dodged to the left, ducking into a nearby alleyway, and watching as the Titans ran and flew across from a adjacent street, obviously pursuing the stone man.

"Cyborg! Get his feet before he can get up!" A young boy in a bright outfit was giving orders. Due to his fame, Rose immediately recognized him as Robin. He was kind of cute, in an athletic sort of way. Rose watched as a partially mechanical man, at least 18, bent a light pole around the Cinderblock's feet. She assumed he was Cyborg.

Before Cyborg could finish the tie, he was launched into the air by a swift kick from Cinderblock. A red haired, almost orange skinned girl immediately flew up to catch him. Rose assumed this was Starfire, since she was the only female Titan that Rose knew of besides Raven.

Robin dodged with agility that reminded Rose of her father, as Cinderblock impotently flailed his arms around. Rose ducked as a car flew past the alleyway, slamming Cinderblock sideways, and skidding on it's side down the road. Cinderblock struggled to his feet, only to be grabbed from behind by a large green ape, which Rose immediately recognized as Beastboy.

Cinderblock struggled a moment with the ape, and then pulled it over his shoulders, slamming it headfirst into the pavement, with an impact that shook the ground all the way where Rose was standing. The ape changed back into a human, laying dazedly on the concrete. Cinderblock raised a fist, but was assaulted with wildly thrown green bolts from Starfire before he could bring his hand down. He stumbled sideways, but reacted quickly, guarding his face with his arm, and throwing a nearby pile of debris at the girl. As she flew backwards, coughing from the dust and grit, Robin ran to catch her.

Rose saw that Raven was busy attending to Cyborg, who was apparently damaged from the kick earlier, and Robin was preoccupied with Starfire. Beastboy was still dazed on the ground, and Cinderblock was advancing. She watched, feeling helpless as the stone man rose his hand in a deathblow for the young green teenager. Rose felt some unfamiliar feeling rise within her, a protectiveness and boldness that she didn't recognize. "Beastboy! Lookout!"

With her shout, Rose raised her hands, activating her powers and flinging Cinderblock up into the air. She held him there, hovering thirty feet up, as Beastboy struggled to his feet. Suddenly, the heavy Cinderblock felt lighter, and Rose was aware of Raven standing next to her. Raven's hands were glowing black, if such a thing was possible. Robin was helping Beastboy away, and Raven said simply, "Let go of him."

Rose let her powers fade, and Cinderblock was held in the air by Raven's powers, appearing as a strange outlined shape in the black glow of her ability. Raven slammed the bestial stone man into the ground, dazing him long enough for the repaired Cyborg to bind his feet and arms. Raven turned towards Rose, as the other Titans began to run towards her. "For better or worse, they know you're back now."

Rose forced an awkward smile as the Titans crowded around her in happy disbelief.

"Uh... Hi."

* * *

A/N: A lot happens in this chapter! Rose continues to struggle with her amnesia and her present changing life. I'm sure that being surrounded in people that know the 'original' her will really help out. Thanks for the continuing support, of course, and I will try to make the next chapter take less time. Thanks for all the reviews, and I hope to see you next chapter. 


	4. Foreshock

Review Responses: 

Lambbaby: I self-criticize all the time, and I think it's probably normal. Anyway, I'm glad you like everything, of course, and I'm also glad that you think I'm keeping everyone in character. That's the most important part, to me. I hope you enjoy this next chapter as well.

Polyhymnia: MY writing is "elegant prose"? That's a high compliment, and I thank you. I'm glad you enjoy the story. I hope things go as well with this chapter, though there is less action by far.

Kayasuri-n: Slade is a creepy guy, and Rose begins to see that. No romance and no pairings planned yet. Glad you are happy.

Dr.Evil99: Another fine review. Of course, we've discussed it, so I'll save space here. Hope you like the chapter.

CalliopeMused: Thanks for the compliments, of course, but we've spoken about them before. With regards to cliffhangers, I don't think this chapter ends in one, so that's a plus at least.

* * *

A/N: Ok, here's chapter four. Less action, more Rose. Anyway, it's a bit short but I hope you all enjoy it. More coming as it's written.

* * *

"Uh... Hi."

Rose winced as Beastboy leapt at her, hugging her happily. "Terra! I knew it was you!"

"Agh! Get off of me, Beastboy!" Rose struggled with the green teenager, as the Titans quickly snapped out of their surprised stupor.

"OFF!" Rose shoved Beastboy away from her, irritated with his exuberance.

"You have returned! It is most wonderful to see you!" Rose jumped as the voice came from above her head, looking up to see Starfire flying over here with a wide smile.

Rose started to speak. "I haven't-"

"When BB said he saw you, we couldn't believe it. It's great you're back!" Cyborg held out his mechanical hand, as if waiting for a handshake. Rose reached out hers as well, unsure of how to shake a hand three times the size of her own.

"How are you even alive? You turned to stone." Robin's tone was suspicious, and Rose was taken aback by it. Terra had been turned to stone? Why? How?

"Turned to st-gah!" Rose was again annoyed by interruptions.

"It doesn't matter how she's alive! She's back! She saved me! I knew she'd remember!" Beastboy seemed both excited at her appearance and irritated with Robin's suspicion.

"I don't-"

"We still need to run some tests-"

"Your room is just as you left it!"

"I will go prepare the glorg that you so love!"

The Titans were talking so quickly and so excitedly that Rose couldn't respond, and she was irritated with them all referring to Terra, just as Beastboy had done. She tried to get there attention. "Hey! I'm not-"

"Y'all know we gotta have a party to celebrate Terra coming back."

"With a meat crown of Throknar!"

"Pizza with anchovies too, right?"

Rose shut her eyes tightly in frustration, and shouted loudly. "SHUT UP!"

The ground trembled around her, and she heard the sounds of objects falling from shelves in the nearby shops, as the earth shook. The Titans immediately fell silent, looking at her with less happiness and more fear. Rose hadn't intended to scare them, just to make them be quiet for a moment. She felt guilty, and remembered Ashley's terrified face, and the staring eyes of her other classmates. Though it didn't calm her down, it did force her to control her powers a little more.

Robin was the first to speak again. "Ok, maybe we got off to a bad start. Hi. I'm Robin, from the Teen Titans. Thanks for helping out against Cinderblock."

Rose took Robin's offered hand, and shook it politely. "I'm Rose. Please stop calling me Terra."

"But you are Terra! You can move the eart-mmph!" Beastboy struggled against the metallic hand covering his mouth. Cyborg grinned at Rose.

Rose giggled, despite the tension.

Robin looked at Rose, and she couldn't help but feel like she was being studied. "Well, you do look like her. Do you mind if I ran some tests? I need to know if you are actually Terra."

Rose shook her head, getting angry at their seemingly stubborn stupidity. "No. Look, I'm not Terra. Ask Raven, she knows."

Raven looked mildly irritated with being referred to. "She came to the tower yesterday. She doesn't have the same mind as Terra, though she does have the same powers and the same trouble controlling them." As a response to a look from Robin, Raven added more. "She did ask me not to tell anyone that she was there."

Rose nodded. "Thanks for at least not telling them before now. But see? I'm not her."

Beastboy had wrestled free of Cyborg's hand. "Ter-... Rose, look, I know you think you aren't her, but maybe you just forgot, or just won't let yourself remember. I mean, you have the same powers. How likely is that?"

Rose frowned. "Beastboy, I'm not Terra. Leave it alone, OK? Geez, how many of you people have super strength? Having the same powers doesn't mean anything!"

"Cyborg and I are the only super strong ones." Starfire looked mildly confused.

"By 'you people', she meant superheroes in general, Star. I kind of see her point." Robin seemed to be thoughtful, unsure of how to proceed.

"Look, say whatever you want, but she's Terra. I know it. Just because she doesn't remember, or Raven's creepy magic says she isn't, doesn't mean that she's not!" Beastboy seemed to be getting as angry at Robin as Rose was getting with Beastboy.

"Shut up about that! I've already told you! I'm not Terra!" Rose felt her powers stirring, but was too angry to bother messing with them.

"Yes you are! Your parents died when you were like eight, you ran away from your home, you wandered around trying to help people, but ended up messing stuff up with your powers."

Rose's voice was quiet, but angry. "Shut up."

Beastboy seemingly didn't even hear her. "Then you met us though! You didn't know how to control your powers still, but I found out first, and you helped the Titans for a while, but then Robin figured out you couldn't control them, and he said so, but you thought I told them, and you ran away."

"Seriously, I'm not-"

"I don't know where you went for a while, but when you came back you could control it! You were a Titan for like a month or two, and it was so great. We fought all kinds of bad guys, and you helped out, and it was so cool to have such a great-"

"SHUT! UP!" The ground around Rose suddenly shattered, as the city around her shook violently. Masonry and glass fell from nearby buildings, as people panicked, running from open doors. The earth itself seemed to reject the Titans, spines of stone jutting upwards from the Earth around Rose, nearly impaling them.

Rose grabbed her head with her glowing hands, her vision almost completely obscured by the yellow glow that had overcome her. She could dimly see Beastboy flying away as a bird, with Starfire carrying Robin and Raven pulling Cyborg away with her powers. Rose's head was pounding, and she couldn't get ahold of her abilities. The buildings nearby were starting to crumble apart, and she was surrounded by shattered and broken earth, and the strange stone spikes that had appeared.

It was only a few seconds, but felt like an eternity. The earthquake was over, and Rose collapsed to the ground. It had happened again. Suddenly, she was aware that she was standing in the middle of what was obviously the epicenter, and had no mask or anything to hide her identity. Though she didn't see anyone, she couldn't help imagining people looking at her like her classmates had; with fear in their eyes.

Rose climbed over the spikes, and ran. She ran away from the earthquake, away from the imagined staring eyes of the civilians, and away from the Titans with their fixation on Terra.

Rose ran, she ran far away, and she didn't pause to look back.

* * *

When Rose finally stopped running, she found that she had returned almost to her apartment. She panted for a while, tired and sweating from the long run. After she had recovered, she started walking, unable to think of anything better to do than to just go home. It wasn't far.

Rose looked up at her apartment building. It seemed to loom over her, frowning. She didn't like the thought of returning to her empty apartment, and just sitting there with her thoughts all night. She turned from the building, and started walking down the street, heading towards Shawna's apartment. She walked alone, in a crowd of people, as everyone walked to and fro, worrying about their own lives, and paying no attention to the downcast looking blonde girl.

Rose waved at the doorman for Shawna's apartment building, as she knew him pretty well. He smiled and waved back. "Hello Ms. Wilson. I believe Ms. Blaike is in at the moment."

Rose smiled also. "Thanks Mr. Palmer."

She walked up the stairs, forgoing the painfully slow elevator, and then down the hallway. Shawna's apartment was only on the second floor. She knocked lightly on the door, which was answered shortly by Shawna's mother.

Shawna's mother looked a little surprised, and not just a little worried, when she saw Rose standing there. Rose spoke first. "Um, Hi Mrs. Blaike. Is Shawna here?"

The woman nodded. "Yes, she's here, Rose. She's in her room. Is everything OK? The police were here yesterday, asking about you."

Rose forced a smile. "Yeah, everything is Ok. I'm still getting used to everything."

Shawna's mother let Rose in, and Rose walked towards Shawna's room, waving and smiling at Shawna's dad as she went. She ignored the furtive whispers between the married couple as she knocked on Shawna's door. Shawna opened it, and let her in quickly, closing and locking the door behind her. "Hi Rose. What's up?"

Rose noticed that Shawna was trying her best to act normal, but there was something in the way she was moving and watching her that showed that she was nervous. "Um, I just sort of saved Beastboy from dying, and then sort of attacked the Titans. Maybe. Anyway, there was an earthquake downtown."

Shawna nodded. "Yeah, it was on the news a bit ago. I kinda thought it was you, but I didn't tell mom and dad. The news just said it was an earthquake."

Rose smiled. "Thanks for not saying anything. I really don't know what to do. I can't go to the Titans. All they talk about is Terra."

"Yeah, but maybe they are right. I mean, you don't remember anything about your past anyway, so it's sort of possible. Don't get mad."

"I don't know. Maybe. But I still think that I'm not Terra now, even if I was. Does that make any sense?"

Shawna smiled. "Yeah, I guess. Maybe you'll figure out how to control it on your own or something. I don't know how it works."

There was an uncomfortable silence for a few minutes. Finally, Rose spoke. "Look, thanks for at least talking to me. You're the only friend I have left, and it's so hard to be all alone with all this mess going on."

Shawna smiled. "Don't worry. I know you need someone to talk to. Hey, why don't you try the Titans again? Maybe they calmed down."

Rose shrugged. "I might as well, I guess. I don't know what else to-"

A loud banging on the door suddenly interrupted the conversation. The voice that came from the other side was angry and commanding. "Rose Wilson! This is Police Sergeant Bronsky. Come out quickly and unarmed. You will not be hurt."

Rose's eyes widened, and she froze, unable to move. Shawna looked equally panicked. Sergeant Bronsky continued. "Come out now! You have ten seconds before we will force entry ourselves!"

Rose stood up, coming out of her shock, and falling instead into worry. "Ok, I'm going to open the door. Don't shoot me; I promise I won't do anything!"

Rose walked over to the doorway, and Shawna followed her. She turned the handle, and opened it slowly. About a dozen submachine gun barrels met her there, wielded by stern looking policemen. Apparently Jump City didn't take metahuman threats lightly. A man spoke from the front of the group, holding only a pistol. Apparently he was Sergeant Bronsky. His voice was a little calmer now that she was cooperating. "Are you unarmed, Rose? No meta powers?"

Rose nodded, a little dumbstruck with all the guns pointed at her. "I don't want to fight! Please put the guns down!"

Sergeant Bronsky made a gesture, and the policemen relaxed, lowering their weapons, but not putting the safety on. Bronksy holstered his sidearm. "I'm sorry, but it's protocol for metahuman arrests. Turn around now, we need to put the handcuffs- Hey!"

Rose suddenly bolted, not wanting to be cuffed and arrested by the policemen. She focused just briefly, and the metal in the guns responded to her powers, throwing themselves and the policemen strapped to them across the room. Bronsky tried to grab her, but wasn't quick enough, as the girl shouldered past him. She tore through the apartment, running out of the still-open door while Mrs. Blaike shouted after her to come back.

Rose looked down the hallway, seeing another group of policemen leveling their guns at her. She turned the other direction and ran, even though no staircase existed that way. She heard hustling boots behind her, and was forced to stop at the end of the hallway, backed up against a wall, with a window showing the twenty foot drop to the concrete below. She turned around, facing Bronsky and the two groups of policemen, as well as their angered faces. Bronksy reached out for her, but she panicked, and backed away quickly. Her foot hit the wall behind her, and she looked back, seeing the window set about a foot off the floor. She looked at Bronsky, and stepped up onto the windowsill.

Sergeant Bronsky stopped moving towards her, and shook his head. "Come on now, Rose. You don't want to do that. We're not here to hurt you. We're trying to help-"

"I just caused an earthquake downtown that probably did thousands of dollars in damage. You want to arrest me. I can't get arrested, I can't!" Rose felt the panic rising inside her, and she could feel a slight trembling in the building. Her powers...

Bronsky seemed to not notice the shaking. "Rose, calm down. You can't get away. The building is surrounded by police. Just come quietly, and we won't hurt you."

Rose shook her head, hesitating a moment. "You are lying! I can't go with you. You'll put me in some prison, and I'll never get out!"

"Rose, there's no other choice. You can't run, and you can't fight this many of us. Calm down. We can help you." Bronsky almost sounded like he'd practiced this a hundred times.

Rose didn't believe him, and finally just decided to trust in her powers. She focused, and the window suddenly shattered under her will. The policemen hesitated as they saw her eyes glowing yellow as she stood among the falling glass. Rose jumped out of the window before they could recover, landing on a stone that quickly levitated up to meet her feet. Her hands and eyes glowed brightly as she flew into the air, holding on to the stone. Rose felt insane, running from the police using her powers like this.

A hail of gunshots broke her sense of power. She turned her stone quickly, turning a corner around a nearby building putting her out of sight of the policemen. She focused, moving her stone quickly, tearing through the air faster than she could really react. Sirens wailed from the streets below, but quickly faded as she outpaced the cars, stuck in the midday traffic. Her stone held together better than last time, as she fled unthinking. She moved in a straight line, soaring high over the bay and across the opposite shore. The earth beneath her quickly changed from city to a desert, as she entered the wastes north of the city.

* * *

The rock began to crumble, and Rose lowered herself quickly. The rock finally fell apart, dumping her hard against the long-dried soil. She stood, brushing herself off, then looked around. She forced her mind to focus on her surroundings, not wanting to think about her situation with the police. She was in some long canyon, near a huge pile of broken rock and rubble. Rose rubbed her eyes. Her powers seemed to cause a lot of dust. Maybe some goggles would help things.

Rose walked around the rubble, hoping to find some shade from the suddenly hot and oppressive sun. She stopped short as she saw what looked like a dessicated husk of some giant insect. Some kind of scorpion had been crushed by the fallen rubble. Rose looked around frantically, half expecting some huge insect to come attack her. Nothing was there, of course, and in a moment she stopped panicking.

With nothing else to do, Rose started walking down the length of the canyon. The usage of her powers had exhausted her, and she felt no need to fly up to the top of the cliffs right now. While she walked, she basically stared at the ground, letting herself think.

She was a fugitive. The police had been there, and her first instinct had been to run away. Rose shook her head in disbelief. It was hard to believe that just over a week ago she had been a completely normal girl, with no powers, no criminal history, and no policemen chasing after her. She sighed.

"Ok, so I'm a criminal. What do criminals with superpowers do when they run away?" Rose spoke aloud to herself again, not feeling embarrassed since she was all alone in the desert anyway.

"Well, they don't wander around in the desert until they die of sunburn and thirst, I guess." Rose half-smiled to herself. She did feel a little silly talking to herself, but it might help her work her problems out, and so she continued.

"Ok, so I'm a runaway supervillain, or something. It's not like that is hopeless. I mean, supervillains stay free for a long time sometimes. I mean, some of them even go good."

"Yeah, the Titans helped Jinx go good for a while, they might be able to help me. It's not like I killed anyone. I just accidentally earthquaked the city, and my school, and ran away from the police. No one can get mad that I ran away from two dozen guys with guns pointed at me."

Rose walked in silence for a moment. "I hope Shawna is Ok. She didn't have anything to do with it. I guess I need to start thinking about the people I associate with. I can't keep putting people I care about in danger. Maybe it's better to hang out with a bunch of weirdos like the Titans. At least then I wouldn't mind so much if they got in trouble because of me."

Rose fell silent, mulling over her discordant thoughts in her mind. Everything had been so insane in the last day that she could barely focus. The heat of the sun wasn't helping either. She stopped walking, seeing the end of the canyon in front of her. Shielding her eyes with her hand, she looked up at the cliff face. There was a smallish pathway, roughly formed with stone, that led to a cave opening. Something about the place made her want to go in, and so she shrugged, and started climbing the stone stairs.

It wasn't long before she found herself peering into the shallow cave. It didn't go deep, and seemed almost like it had been carved into the mesa. It was a corridor that dug directly into the side of the mesa, and then turned abruptly. She walked inside, moving slowly and letting her eyes adjust to the darkness. After the turn, the corridor went about another thirty feet, and then terminated in a smallish, flat-floored room. Rose looked around the room, surprised that it showed signs of habitation. No one had been in here in a long time though, as there was dust and sand piled around everything.

The room was maybe ten feet on each side, not naturally formed, but the walls weren't flat either. There was a hole in one wall, leading diagonally upwards, and letting in a bit of light. There was a basin underneath the hole, maybe to catch water. It was empty at the moment, however. There was an old radio in the corner, mostly buried in sand, as well as a small backpack. There were also a few stone furnishings. A crude table, and a few stones that may have served as chairs. They didn't look heavily used. There were also a few jugs nearby, full of what looked like water, but not knowing how long they'd been there, and who they belonged to, Rose didn't bother with them.

Rose walked across the room, dusting the sand away from the radio, and flipping the switch to turn it on. Nothing happened. Not surprised, Rose carefully set it back down, not wanting to just break it further by tossing it away. She looked at the backpack a moment. She wasn't really sure if she wanted to just start digging through stuff, but she felt that she may as well, since it wasn't being used frequently anyway.

She picked up the backpack, pulling it from the small mound of sand that had blown in by chance and surrounded it. Rose walked over to the light, using her powers to move a stone next to the small pool of light, and sitting on it. Setting the backpack in front of her, she unzipped it, looking inside.

She pulled the items out one by one. First, a grey long sleeved shirt. Hardly useful in the desert. Rose shrugged, putting it aside, on the sand nearby. Secondly, a small, short sleeved black shirt. She held it up, looking at it skeptically. It might fit her. Maybe. She lay it on top of the grey shirt. Next was a pair of jean shorts, about her size. Getting a little unnerved by the clothing, she put it aside quickly. A pair of goggles was the next thing. She smiled, and put them on. Maybe they would help with her powers, if she needed to use them again.

Reaching to the bottom of the backpack, Rose pulled out a small book. It was bound in a simple black leather case, hardback, and wasn't more than six inches by four inches. She opened the cover, wincing as the dried old leather cracked from the movement. The front page read simply "Tara Markov".

Rose looked at the name for a moment. Something about it was familiar, and she felt strange, thinking of it. The handwriting was extremely similar to her own, and it was disquieting. She turned the page. It was a diary entry, dated about two years ago.

_Dear diary number four,_

_Diary three is still in Kansas, in the cave west of Smallville. It's in the lead box, so that jerk Conner can't read it if he ever finds it. Anyway, this is my diary for Jump City. Hopefully things will go better here. I made this cave today, it took about three hours I guess. My watch is also back in Smallville. The sinkhole there wasn't too bad, and no one got hurt, but I still had to go. Why can't I do this?_

_Anyway, yeah, just made the cave. There's a weird scuttling noise sometimes nearby, and I can't really place it. I think I'll walk around the city tomorrow, see what's up. It seems like a cool enough place, and the Titans are based here._

_-Terra_

Rose stared at the name. Terra. The girl that the Titans had confused with her. She flipped a few pages, and a small photograph fell out. It was old and faded, and it didn't look like the desert heat and dryness had been good to it, but she picked it up anyway, and took off her goggles to see better. Rose's mouth fell open.

Anyone. Anyone in the world would have guessed that it was a picture of Rose smiling and giving a peace sign as she stood on the shore of the bay, with Titan's Tower in the background. The girl in the picture, presumably Terra, was smiling happily. She was wearing the clothes that had been in the bag, or clothes exactly like them, as well as heavy brown gloves. Rose also noticed a small, butterfly shaped hairpiece. She looked at the page that the photo had fallen from. It was another entry, about a week after the first.

_Dear diary four,_

_Got my picture taken with Titans Tower in the background. The guy who took it was just a tourist who seemed nice. Anyway, he gave me the Polaroid after he took the photo, so that's cool. The city isn't bad. There are bad sections, which I guess is good for a superhero, but there are also a lot of nice areas. It's sunny here. warm, nice sunny, not cold and windy sunny, like Kansas._

_That scuttling noise gets worse at night. It sounds like some huge thing, walking around outside. It doesn't seem like it can get in though, so I guess it's ok. The chairs and table, if you could even call them that, are working out ok. Food is pretty easy to come by. There's a river that runs nearby, and empties into the bay, and plenty of fish are there._

_Anyway, I'm going to mess around with the land nearby. The sand is annoying; I might have to get something to keep it out of my eyes. Also the rock seems really odd, it feels unstable somehow. After I move it, it tends to break a lot. I'm going to see if I can find a way to stop it from doing that._

_-Terra_

Rose flipped the page again. The next entry seemed hastily written, undated, and it was short.

_Diary,_

_Met Titans. Just getting things. Back soon._

_-T_

Rose grinned. It was sort of cute that the girl had stopped to write in her diary when the Titans were waiting for her. The handwriting was still a lot like hers, but it wasn't bothering her as much. Somehow reading this diary gave her a sense of calm. Plus, it was interesting to read about the girl that the Titans had so adored. The next entry was dated two days later.

_Dear Diary,_

_He told. Beastboy told them. He promised he wouldn't, and he told them._

_Why is it always like this?_

_Anyway, I stayed at the Titans' overnight. They were pretty impressed with my powers. Beastboy knew I couldn't control them, and he told them._

_I met their enemy guy. I guess every superhero has an enemy or something. Slade was his name. He's a big guy, tall, with only one eye. He talked to me when I ran away, after almost hurting Beastboy during a fight. It was an accident! Slade told me he could help me control it. He said he could help me stop the mistakes. He gave me my butterfly back, I lost it with the scorpion._

_Oh, right, that was the scuttling noise. A giant scorpion thing. I smashed it with a rock. No problem._

_I don't know about Slade. He seemed like he might be able to help, but he's so... creepy._

_I'm tired. I'm going to sleep now; maybe things will make sense in the morning._

_-Terra_

Rose frowned at the description of Slade. It brought back memories of her father's conversation with Agent Fite. She wasn't sure why the description of Slade was so close to her father, and she was pretty certain that she didn't want to know. Why would her father have met with Terra? Did he have some interest in talking to superheroes? Rose sighed, and turned the page again.

_Diary,_

_I still don't know. I practiced all day today, and I still feel like my powers won't obey me._

_Maybe Slade is right. Maybe he's the only one that can help me._

_I bought a paper today. I'm not mentioned in the story about the Titans defending the mine. I guess that's fine. I don't want to see Beastboy again anyway._

_-Terra_

Rose turned the page to the next entry. It was dated about two weeks past the previous.

_Diary four,_

_Slade contacted me._

_Well, he left a package at the mouth of my cave. How he found me, I don't know. The package had a weird suit in it. It looks like a costume. Long sleeved black shirt with a "T" on it, yellow shorts, and a little belt with bags on it. I don't know what it's for. There was a little ear piece as well. I put it on, and immediately I heard him talking to me._

_He just told me that I could call him with the ear piece if I ever needed him, and the suit was for the Titans, if I saw fit to join them._

_He still creeps me out. I like the costume though._

_-T_

Rose flipped a few pages, until she came to a blank page. She flipped back, and read the last entry.

_Dear Diary number four,_

_I'm not sure, but this might be my last entry for a while. I've been talking to Slade, and he makes sense. He seems to know how to control himself, and he might help me get under control. He wants me to meet him downtown,in the city. I'm going to go._

_Whatever he is planning to do to help me control myself, it's not going to be just a weekend or something. He's a martial artist, and that means it will be a long time before he gets done training me in anything. I'll come back and write here when I'm able._

_Thanks for being a friend, and I hope I'll be back in a few weeks or so._

_Bye._

_-Terra_

Rose set the book down, and sighed. Judging from the Diary, Terra had gone to work with Slade. Slade seemed like a bad person, and at the very least he was an enemy of the Titans. Rose thought again of her father, and his continued antipathy for the group. She shut the thought out of her mind. That wasn't possible. Her father was just some kind of businessman. The one eye and the weird talk with the Agent were just coincidences. She sighed heavily, and then suddenly heard a noise from the corridor. Sounded like a footstep in the sand.

"Who's there?" Rose stood quickly, and felt her powers come to the ready.

The girl stepped into the light of the chamber as she spoke. "It's just me. I came to talk."

Rose calmed herself, not sure why she felt so combative. "Hi, Raven. Sorry. How did you find me?"

Raven stepped across the sand, looking around with interest. "I could sense you from the Tower. what is this place? Those clothes look like Terra's."

"They are. I was reading her diary. I came here after-"

"Getting chased by the police, resisting arrest, and scaring some girl's parents half to death?" Raven's voice was even, but there was a hint of a smile her it, though her face didn't show it.

Rose nodded, and sat down, not amused by Raven's joking manner. "Yeah. I don't know why I came here. Maybe I am Terra, maybe I'm not, I don't know. I can't work anything out, and my powers are getting too uncontrollable. I need help."

Raven used her own powers to set a stone near Rose's. "That's why I'm here. Well, that, and I'm supposed to be an emissary from the Titans. Beastboy says he's sorry."

Rose laughed bitterly. "I'll be fine. I won't die or anything, he's just annoying. What do the Titans want?"

"Well, either we want you to join us, and work with us to find a way to control your powers, or at least try to stop damaging the city with them. We won't turn you in to the police. Many so-called superheroes work rather outside the law anyway." Raven looked at the ground as she spoke, seemingly a bit uncomfortable.

Rose sat quietly a moment. "I'm sorry that I sort of attacked you guys. It wasn't me. My powers did it. I know that sounds lame."

Raven didn't respond at first. When she did, her voice sounded forced, as if what she was saying didn't come out easily. "I... have trouble controlling my own powers. If I feel any emotion, or at least any strong one, they activate by themselves. I have to keep myself in check all the time."

"That's... kind of awful. I hope my powers aren't like that." Rose didn't know how to respond.

Raven looked at the ground. "At the very least, they aren't caused by the same thing. I'm not metahuman. I'm... I guess 'demonic' would be the closest to accurate. I'm telling you this in confidence, because you seem like you need someone to talk to honestly."

Rose thought for a moment, then spoke. "Demonic? You're a superhero though. That makes me... well, I guess it makes me happy. If you can overcome something like that, my being metahuman sort of seems like a petty problem."

Raven looked towards her. "I'm here, and I don't have to leave for a while. Let's talk. I'll try to help you, and maybe we can sort all of this out."

Rose nodded, slowly. "Ok, let's talk."

* * *

A/N: Poor Rose has to wade through some emotional baggage. Things are starting to clear up, as Rose learns more about Terra, and starts to see holes in her father's facade. Here's hoping that you enjoyed this chapter. Please review if you have things to say about it, I like comments and criticism. See you in a few weeks, with a new chapter! 


	5. Tension

Review Responses: 

TerraRox: A succinct review. It's updated now.

Kayasuri-n: Who says there will be an explosion when she realizes creepy dad is creepy Slade? Anyway, I'm of course glad that you are enjoying the fic.

CalliopeMused: Thanks for the positive review. As usual, we have already spoken about it, so I won't delve into it again here.

Lambbaby: Yay for Superboy! Also I'm glad that you enjoy seeing Rose's thoughts and processes of wrestling with her newly crazed life and her odd father. Here's the next chapter, only a month and a week later.

Dr. Evil99: Thanks for the detailed review, as always, but we've spoken at length about this fic at various times. thus I will just get on with the next chapter now.

* * *

A/N: Ok, here's chapter five, nearly a month after the previous. Hope you enjoy it! It's a bit dialog heavy, and a little weird in places, but at least it's done. Enjoy!

* * *

Though Rose had agreed to talk, both girls sat in silence for a while, staring at the sandy floor of the cave. Despite Raven being the least irritating of all the Titans, Rose still didn't exactly know her, and definitely had no idea what to say to her right away. Rose ventured a look at the girl, and saw that she was looking down, with a thoughtful expression on her face. The room was quiet, save for a light whisper of wind from outside. Rose noticed that the small pool of light had dimmed slightly. It was getting towards evening.

Rose jumped a bit as Raven broke the silence. "I'm not sure what to say."

Smiling, Rose nodded. "Yeah, I know what you mean. You're a superhero, and I'm just... I don't know what I am."

Raven nodded as well, and then fell silent again. Rose, not wanting another impossible to break silence hanging over them, spoke up again. "So, I'm sorry about attacking you guys. I just wanted you all to leave me alone, and Beastboy wouldn't shut up."

"Yes, and that's something I need to talk about. Not Beastboy, but the other part. The Titans sent me as an emissary not only because I've spoken to you before, but also because they think of you as Terra, and she was extremely dangerous when she lost control. I am the most likely to survive combat with her. We weren't certain how you would react. Since this is supposed to be an honest talk, I wanted to tell you that." Raven's voice was calm and monotone, and she didn't look at Rose as she spoke.

Terra had been dangerous? If Terra was dangerous, and Rose had the same powers, was she dangerous as well? Rose smiled a little. Of course she was. She'd already caused at least two earthquakes, let alone a few tremors. But Rose didn't want to be considered a danger. Not only that, but it seemed like the Titans considered her unstable as well. "I'm not going to attack you, Raven. I didn't even mean to attack you before."

"Your powers. Speaking of them, you flew most of the way here. Are you feeling better about using them?" Raven still didn't look directly at Rose, but she did seem more interested.

Rose shook her head. "No. Well, yes, but no. I just had to do something to get away from the police. They were going to arrest me and put me in some prison somewhere. I can't go to prison."

Raven looked at her. "You don't deserve it. Terra might, but you don't. Not yet."

Rose shuddered. Something about the way Raven said Terra's name made her uncomfortable. "Um, as much as I apparently look like her, I don't know anything about Terra. I mean, who was she?"

Raven seemed taken aback by the question, and hesitated a moment. "Terra was... I think she was a lot like you. She had powers, but didn't know how to control them. The difference is that you are looking for help, and Terra... Terra just tried to do everything alone."

Raven sighed. "We met Terra very near here. She was running from a giant scorpion, and I had sensed the monster from the tower a few times. Since it seemed excited, we thought it might be putting someone in danger. We came to investigate. We got here only a few seconds before she killed it. She was very friendly, and seemed to know a lot about us before we met her. Starfire, Cyborg, and Beastboy convinced her to stay at the tower for a night. Robin and I reserved judgement. Something about her just seemed wrong."

Rose nodded, wanting to hear more of the story. Raven was speaking to her, but staring at the ground again, and her voice made it sound as if she was trying to watch what she said. Although it might not directly relate to her, Rose still wanted to hear more about the girl that the Titans seemed to want to believe had returned. If nothing else, it would keep her mind off of her own situation for a while.

Raven continued. "She stayed the night without any problems, and joined us for combat practice the next day. She did well, but it was obvious to everyone that she wasn't used to real combat. She was sloppy with her powers, nearly falling several times, and panicking under pressure. As soon as combat practice was over, we were called into real combat. Slade had made a feint against a diamond mine, and the Titans arrived to combat him. During the fight, Terra lost control, and she nearly killed Beastboy. She ran away from us. After he recovered, Beastboy chased after her. I'm not sure what happened between them, but they both came back together. The problem came later that night. Robin extended an offer to Terra to join the Titans."

Raven's voice sounded irritated as she spoke of the invitation. Rose couldn't help but wonder why. Still, she didn't want to interrupt.

"She would have accepted, I think, but Robin told her that he knew she had trouble controlling her powers. Apparently it had been a secret between her and Beastboy. She yelled at him, and then ran away. I think she went to Slade shortly afterwards. I don't know how he found her, or how she found him."

Rose decided to interrupt. "Who is Slade?"

Raven's expression darkened. "He's a supervillain. I suppose 'supervillain' isn't exactly correct. He doesn't have any powers, but he's an expert martial artist. He comes close to besting Robin in single combat, even beating him on occasion. He's a psychopath. He has actively tried to kill the Titans on several occasions, and seems to have an obsession with controlling us by coercion or force. He is extremely dangerous."

"Controlling you? What do you mean?" Rose felt very uneasy at the mention of control. Somehow the thought of being controlled was disturbing and familiar, and she didn't want to think about it.

Raven closed her eyes as she spoke. "He controlled Robin by threatening the rest of us with death. Terra came to him willingly, but Beastboy claims that she was being controlled by the suit he gave her. He tried to control me with the help of my father, but failed."

"Who is your father?" Rose couldn't stifle her curiosity.

Raven's voice was cold and almost frightening. "I don't want to talk about him."

Rose decided to change the subject. "Ok, so tell me about what else happened with Terra."

Raven seemed as if the chatty mood had left her, and her description of events became much quicker. "Terra spent the next few months with Slade, though we didn't know it. Afterwards, she reappeared and joined the Titans over my fairly vocal dissent. She was a Titan for about six weeks, living with us, talking with us, and fighting alongside us. In reality she was a spy. Eventually she betrayed us to Slade, giving him access to the tower and... distracting Beastboy while we fought an army of Slade's robots."

Rose said nothing, but was getting irritated with the similarities between Slade the villain and Slade her father. The robotic schematics she had seen him going over a few days ago returned to her. She put it out of her mind, as Raven continued talking.

"We won, but only the battle. Slade had all the information that he needed to fight us. It was only a few weeks before Terra attacked us. One by one she hunted us down, and seemingly tried to kill us all. For some reason, she instead simply put us underground. We all met up in a cavern, and eventually formed a plan to return to the surface to fight her. In the meantime, the city was evacuated under the pretense of a predicted earthquake. The people that didn't evacuate willingly were chased away by Terra. She and Slade owned the city for a time."

Raven sighed, seemingly tired, and her description of events paled even more. "Anyway, we came back, beat her, and she retreated to Slade. Beastboy found his way to them while the rest of us were fighting an army of robots and a combined monster that Slade created. We arrived later, and she was holding a stone over his head, and he had his foot stuck. It looked like she might kill him, but instead she attacked Slade. They fought, and she eventually let her powers go, and beat him. She triggered a long-dormant volcano, however, and had to stay there and stop it while we ran. Using her powers like that somehow turned her into stone."

Rose sat quietly for a moment, and Raven did as well. The light from outside was failing, and the cave had filled with a dark gloom. Raven finally spoke again. "I thought she was gone. When Beastboy saw you the first time, he went and checked her tomb. The statue was gone."

Rose spoke quietly. "Do you think I'm her?"

Raven's voice grew cold again. "If I did, I wouldn't be talking to you."

Raven sighed, seemingly thinking better of her hostility. "I don't trust people easily, or at least I didn't back then. I trusted her, and she betrayed me. She betrayed all of us. I can't forgive her for that."

Rose nodded. "Thanks for talking. I wanted to know more about Terra."

Raven stood up. "It's getting late, and Robin is probably getting anxious waiting for my return. I will be back tomorrow. I would invite you to stay at the Tower, but I don't think you want to."

Rose shook her head. "No, I think I'll stay here. It's remote enough that the police can't find me."

Raven nodded, and disappeared into a black shape. Rose pulled her knees to her chest, and hugged her legs. Talking to Raven, really more listening to Raven, had kept her occupied, but now she was alone in this dark cave in the desert, with no one to talk to and no one to listen to her. Rose looked around in the dim light. There was also no bed. Rose bundled up Terra's old clothes, making a small pillow, and lay down in the sand, with her head on it. She stared up into the darkness of the ceiling.

She was dangerous, she was feared, she was wanted, and she was alone. Everything had gone wrong. Her life hadn't been perfect, but now it was completely ruined, and there was nothing she could think to do to fix it. Her friends all hated her, or at the very least were scared of her. Her father was gone, and she didn't even know where or how long he'd be. Her body wouldn't obey her anymore. The Teen Titans wanted her to join, but really they seemed to just want Terra back.

Rose sighed, and rolled onto her side, feeling the tears drop from her eyes. She felt stupid, laying in a cave in the desert, crying quietly to herself about her life being destroyed, but she had nothing else to do. She closed her eyes, and in a few minutes, fell asleep.

* * *

Rose was shaken awake early in the morning, and sat up, rubbing her eyes and wondering why her bed felt so hard. It only took a few seconds to remember that she wasn't in her room, however, and she opened her eyes to find Raven looking at her with a mixture of pity and irritation on her face. "It's eight in the morning. Get up."

"Ok. Geez, you aren't exactly nice, are you?" Rose stood, and stretched to try to get the stiffness out of her joints. Sleeping on the sand hadn't been comfortable.

Raven turned and left the room, while Rose hurried after her. The early morning over the desert was brightly lit, but almost cold. The girls stood at the end of the canyon, on the stone stairway leading up to Terra's cave. Rose shook her head, and guarded her eyes against the bright sun. "What do you want with me so early?"

Raven looked at her a moment, then pointed at the base of the canyon. "I want you to pull a stone from down there, and fly us about two hundred yards to the north."

The now familiar yellow glow surrounded her hands, as Rose snapped out of her groggy feeling, and focused her mind, pulling a plate of stone from under the sand at the bottom of the canyon. The plate moved upwards through the air, stopping and hovering in front of Rose and Raven. The girls both stepped onto the stone, and Rose focused once more, moving them through the air. She stopped a fair distance away from the canyon, in a wide expanse of empty, rocky desert. She looked around, seeing nothing of any interest at all. "Why do you want to be out here? There is nothing here."

Raven nodded, half smiling. "That's the point. When I was first learning to use my powers, I was terrified of breaking buildings or hurting people. I wanted you to feel free to do what you like with yours. My own training was more of a safety concern than yours needs to be."

Rose smiled, looking around again. "Ok, that make sense. I don't want to get in any more trouble anyway. Ok, so what first?"

"We will focus on aim and physical control first, and we'll deal with the emotional side later. Try to hit me." Raven floated up into the air, with her cape billowing behind her. Rose thought she looked a little dangerous flying like that, but figured she'd give it a shot anyway.

Rose focused, pulling a small pebble up from the ground, and firing it over at Raven. It was effortlessly blocked with a sheet of black power that appeared out of nowhere. Raven narrowed her eyes. "Try harder than that."

Grinning, Rose concentrated again, picking up a dozen or so small stones, and flinging them together at Raven. Again, Raven simply put up a sheet of power, blocking the stones easily. Rose frowned. Fine then, if she wasn't going to give Rose a break, then Rose would have to just do better.

Rose smiled, her hands and eyes glowing yellow. She lifted the dirt she was standing on, pulling a chunk into the air, and flying backwards a few feet, feeling a little more comfortable with her powers. She quickly pulled a large boulder from the nearby ground, moving rather than throwing it at Raven. The impact with the sheet of power shook Rose herself, as she felt her powers press against Raven's. Raven seemed unaffected by the effort Rose was exerting, or the weight of the stone.

She was, however, affected by the pebble that levitated into the air behind her and pinged forward, hitting the gray skinned girl lightly on the back of the head.

Rose dropped the boulder, grinning in her small victory. Raven lowered her shield as well, rubbing the back of her head in mock soreness. "Interesting. Terra always took a more direct approach. Fine, you hit me. Now, defend yourself."

Raven's body was surrounded in a flame-like black power, as she lifted into the air again, her eyes glowing white. Rose backed away, lifting herself into the air again on another chunk of dirt. She noticed Raven lifting small stones from the ground as well, the stones turning dark with her telekinesis as she lifted them. Rose picked up a large boulder, then focused with her powers, pressing hard. The rock split, forming a roughly flat surface that she faced outwards, smiling.

Raven threw one of the stones at her. Rose moved the shield quickly, blocking it. Raven nodded curtly, and then threw two stones from opposite directions. Rose blocked one and ducked quickly, as the other sailed over her head. Raven half-smiled, then threw another three stones, from different directions and at different times. Rose ducked and covered her head with her hands, dropping the shield as the first two stones sailed over her. She felt the third stone smack her in the shoulder, but it didn't hurt her at all.

Rose stood, grinning at Raven, who had dropped the remaining stones. Raven lowered herself to the ground, and so did Rose, stepping off of the crumbling platform. Raven spoke, her voice dry and monotone. "You did well for your first time. You also didn't lose control."

Rose shook her head. "No, I guess it was kind of fun, and I didn't get too stressed out or anything. That's mostly when it happens."

Raven seemed to think for a moment. "Ok, let's see what your limits are. How much can you lift?"

Rose shrugged, and looked at the desert behind her. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and then opened them again. She concentrated, pulling as much earth as she felt she could. Her eyes glowed yellow, and she could barely see. It felt like she was straining a muscle as she used her powers to their fullest extent. She felt the ground tremble beneath her as the large chunk of earth rose from the sand. Rose couldn't hold it long, and dropped the dirt a moment later, feeling the earth shake from the impact.

Raven seemed almost impressed. "At least six tons. That's more than Terra could. Now, pick up that boulder over there."

Rose did so.

"What can you do with it?"

Rose shrugged. "I don't know. I can throw it, or I guess break it like a shield. I can ride on them."

Raven nodded. "Part of my training was to learn everything I can do with my powers. At first I could only move small objects, like cups and bowls. Experimenting with your powers can let you see things that you wouldn't see otherwise."

Rose lowered the stone, but kept her powers active. She decided she'd try to break the stone with a little more control. She squinted her eyes, and applied pressure to one small chip. It flaked off without much effort. She kept working, as Raven paced around the stone watching. Rose wasn't much of a sculptor, however, and stopped when she had a roughly humanoid shape carved out. She had intended it to be her dad, but it was very crude. Someone who hadn't known what she was aiming for might be able to tell it was supposed to be male, but that's about all.

Raven looked the statue over. "Unexpected, but interesting. Who is it supposed to be?"

"My father. He's out of town for a few days. I kind of miss him; I wanted him to be here while I have to deal with all this." Rose felt a bit angry now, that her father wasn't around when she needed him. Plus, thinking of him had reminded her of all the creepy coincidences relating to him. She didn't really want to think about that right now. She lifted a pebble and threw it at the statue. It bounced off the stone with no real effect.

Lifting herself into the air again, Raven looked down at the statue and Rose. "Ok, another part of being on a team is defending your teammates. Defend him."

Rose stood between the statue and Raven, watching as Raven lifted stones with her powers. She began with a single stone, like last time. Rose tried something new this time, using her power to bat the stone away. Raven fired three stones next, and Rose focused, feeling the stones flying through the air, and knocked them all away as well. Raven dropped the remaining stones, and Rose readied herself, as Raven's hands glowed black.

A black bolt of power shot from Raven's outstretched hand, and Rose pulled her arm up, using her powers to lift a stone spike in front of her. The bolt crashed against it uselessly. Raven lifted the stones again, and threw them in quick succession. Rose caught them as they flew towards the statue, leaving them hovering in the air. As Raven ran out of stones, she threw them all back at once. Raven calmly put up a black shield, and the stone bounced off of it, one of them bouncing far enough back to whack the statue in the head. Rose grinned. "Ok fine, you win."

Raven lowered herself to the ground, and then walked over to Rose. "You haven't lost control."

Nodding, her grin gone as she remembered her problems, Rose sighed. "Yeah, it mostly happens when I get too stressed or angry."

Raven frowned, but when she spoke, her voice was almost sympathetic. "I understand. You may have to control your emotions, as I do. I don't know what Slade did to help Terra control her powers. She wasn't very open with details."

Rose half-smiled. "Still, you might be able to help me. I can't do anything until my powers are under control again. I'm just dangerous to even have around if I could just freak and out destroy the city with an earthquake."

"Or a volcano." Raven's voice had a hint of old anger in it.

Raven pulled her legs up into a lotus position, looking strange as she hovered in the air. Rose concentrated, and made a pedestal of stone next to Raven. She climbed up onto it, and sat in a lotus position also. "Like this?"

Raven nodded, closing her eyes. She took a deep breath, and then let it out slowly. "Close your eyes. Find your center. Focus your energies."

Rose wasn't really certain what "find your center" or "focus your energies" was really supposed to mean, but she took a deep breath and let it out, and tried to clear her mind. She heard Raven muttering a mantra, her tone making it sound like she used it all the time. Rose decided to try it as well, timing her speech to match Raven's. "Azerath, Metrion, Zinthos... Azerath, Metrion, Zinthos..."

The meditation continued for some time. As it went, Rose felt a change come over her. Whether or not it was simply the meditation, the mantra, or some trick of Raven's powers, she felt her emotions calm inside her, and she soon felt almost nothing about anything. It would probably help control outbursts, but Rose really wasn't sure that she liked the idea of feeling like this all the time.

Raven finally stopped chanting and stepped to the ground again. Rose hopped down from the pedestal. Raven looked at her. "How do you feel?"

Rose thought, trying to listen to herself and see how she felt. "I... don't feel. That doesn't make sense, but I feel... kind of dead inside. I can't feel anything."

Raven sighed heavily. "Yes, that's how I have to be in order to keep full control of my powers. I hope it's not the same for you, but it might work for a while."

Rose shuddered. She didn't want to have to be like this.

Suddenly, a short musical tone rang out from Raven's cloak. Rose jumped at the electronic noise in the empty desert. Raven brushed her cloak aside, producing a smallish sort of radio seemingly from nowhere. She pressed a switch, and looked closely at the screen on it. Her tone changed from near-sympathy to heavy irritation. "Great. Waynetech Toxic Waste Processing Plant is under attack."

"What? Who cares? It's just a toxic waste plant. What are the people going to steal?"

Raven shook her head. "Not people. Not really even a person. The only person who would attack a toxic waste facility is a monstrous villain named Plasmus. What bothers me is that Cinderblock and Plasmus are rarely both active so often. Someone else may be involved. I have to go. I might be a while. Keep out of the sun, and try to conserve your energy. I'll be back when I can."

* * *

Rose watched as Raven disappeared in a teleportation bubble. Rose suddenly found herself alone again, in the middle of the desert, in the late morning. The sun, originally cold and distant, was growing quite hot, and Rose didn't have any water around. Rose wished there was a way to shield herself from the sun, and then lightly hit herself on the head. She wasn't used to having powers. Of course, she wasn't sure it was a good idea, but she may as well get used to them while she was out here.

Rose concentrated, and raised a large cube of dirt from the ground. She moved her hands towards it, and began making a rough doorway, only vaguely rectangular, by moving dirt away from the cube and dropping it on the ground nearby. She felt more and more confident as she went, pulling more dirt away at at time. Eventually, she had hollowed out a rough mud hut. She walked inside, looking around. It was ugly and crude, but it kept her out of the sun, and the walls were still cool from being underground.

Rose sat in the middle of her small house and pulled her legs into a lotus position. She began to meditate as Raven had taught her, feeling that there was little else to do. She meditated for a short time, doing exactly as Raven had taught her, but felt as if there was no real effect. Her emotions were already suppressed, and she didn't notice anything happening. She opened her eyes, and looked out the doorway.

The midday sun was bright and almost glaring on the pale sand. The large piles of excavated dirt from her hut was still sitting outside, baking in the heat. Rose didn't stand, instead staying in the lotus position, and lifted a small clod of soil from the pile. She pulled it through the air and the doorway, letting it hover in front of her. No matter how strange the emotionlessness from Raven's meditation felt, Rose couldn't help but admit that it did make her powers feel... sharper somehow.

Rose concentrated on the dirt, trying to see what she could do with it. As she focused, she suddenly became aware that she could almost feel the dirt, as if it was part of her. Rose closed her eyes, as she continued to hold the ball of soil in the air, and tried to feel the rest of the stone and sand around her. Slowly, she found that the sand underneath her responded to her powers. She could feel each grain of sand, though only in a distant sense, as if feeling her hair. It was part of her, but had no feeling of it's own. As Rose continued to expand her powers, she found that she could feel the walls of her hut, more solid now after drying in the sun for a time. The soil in the walls felt different than the loose sand.

Rose opened her eyes, and the sensation faded quickly, though it wasn't quite gone. The ball of dirt was still hovering in front of her. She'd almost forgotten about it. Rose half smiled, feeling fairly confident in her abilities all the sudden. She lowered the ball to the floor, and then pressed it, shaping it into a rough replica of her little hut. With the leftover soil, she made a little doll of herself, still extremely rough of course. She smiled. She couldn't remember ever having a dollhouse, but the idea still made her smile.

Rose spent the next few hours practicing with her powers, pulling more and more soil from outside, and making silly houses and dolls with it. She made her apartment building, not at all to scale with the hut or the doll, her old school, Shawna, Ashley, Titans' Tower, the Titans, and even Cinderblock. Of course, the only thing that anyone would even recognize was Titans' Tower, since all of her dolls barely even looked human.

"What is this?"

Rose jumped at the sound of the girl's voice. She'd been using her powers to make her little Rose doll walk around the little village she'd created. She suddenly felt very embarrassed by her little game. "Um... practice?"

Raven sat down in the sand next to Rose, and gently picked up one of the dolls. It was the one that Rose had intended to be Shawna, but it looked basically the same as all the others. Raven looked at it with feigned interest, then set it back down. "Well, at least it's practice."

Rose nodded. "So, how did the fight go?"

"We won, of course, but it was long and irritating. I've already showered and changed clothes. I don't think you would have wanted to talk to me after getting Plasmus all over me."

Rose shrugged. "So... what now?"

Raven stood up, and walked to the door. Rose followed her as they stepped out into the afternoon sun. Raven spoke, and she sounded almost hesitant. "I'm going back to the tower. I've been told to... invite you along."

Rose wasn't quite sure that she liked the implication that Raven had been told to do it against her will. She also didn't really like the idea of having to face all the Titans again. They were so weird. "Um... I don't know. Beast Boy and the others are so..."

Raven nodded. "I understand. I'll go back alone. Your apartment is clear of police; you may be able to sneak back in."

Rose watched Raven raise her arms, and start to teleport, and suddenly realized that she didn't want to be alone out in the desert again. "Wait! Wait, I'll come with you."

Raven lowered her arms, and looked at Rose for a moment in silence. "Are you sure?"

Rose smiled weakly. "Yeah, I just don't want to be all alone out here again."

"I... understand." Raven looked around at the desert. "Ok. We'll fly there though. It will help you control yourself, and I can catch you if you fall."

Rose focused, quickly lifting a nearby boulder into the air. Pressing hard, she split it into two pieces, and took the larger one, stepping up onto the flat surface she created. Raven simply lifted herself into the air. Rose felt strange flying over the desert, and quite nervous flying over the water, but having Raven there kept her a bit more calm. It wasn't a terribly long flight before Rose found herself stepping off of the stone and onto the roof of Titans' Tower. Rose tossed the boulder a few hundred yards away, watching it splash into the water with a loud noise. She felt a little embarrassed as Raven looked at her strangely for throwing a huge rock into the water.

* * *

"Come on, the others are downstairs." Raven's manner was fairly curt, and Rose felt as if she might be just a bit nervous.

Rose followed Raven into the roof access door, and down a flight of stairs, ending up in a long hallway. Rose looked around as she walked with Raven, seeing the Titans' names on the doors they passed. She didn't see hers; they must have been on the other side of the T from her room. Finally, Raven stopped a bit short of a closed door at the end of the hallway. Raven's voice was quiet, and sympathetic. "Ready?"

Rose smiled. "Yeah, and thanks for being nice to me like you have. I needed someone to talk to, and you helped a lot more than you might think."

Raven seemed a bit surprised by the sudden thanks, and even a bit flustered. "I- I just- You're welcome."

Raven pressed a switch on the wall, and the door opened. Beastboy looked up, and then grinned widely. "Terra! You're back again!"

Her voice full of irritation, Raven spoke quickly. "She's not Terra, she's Rose. Please remember that."

Robin got up from the couch, the videogame he'd been playing with Cyborg paused. "Hi Rose. You accepted the invitation?"

Rose nodded, feeling fairly ill at ease with all the weird people in the room. "Yes, but mostly because I just need a place to sleep. I don't want to sleep in the desert again."

Starfire flew across the room, gently hugging Rose in her excitement. "We are all most pleased that you have accepted. Please, have you eaten yet?"

Rose shook her head. "Uh, no, I actually haven't had any food at all today."

Beastboy took Rose's hand and pulled her towards the table. "Well, Starfire made dinner early tonight, so you can eat with us, ok?"

Rose sat down at the table, in the seat that Beastboy had guided her to. She noticed that there were only four other seats.

Raven frowned. "So I guess I'll be eating in my room then?"

Beastboy blanched. "I didn't mean- Raven, come on, she's Ter-"

Cyborg cut Beastboy off. "Rose, don't worry. They argue like that all the time. Prepare yourself, Star's cooking is a little hard to get used to."

Starfire didn't look bothered by the comment, as she laid out plates at the five places for the table, The food had a strange look, like gelatin, but with odd, segmented tubes inside it. It wasn't appetizing at all, and even after not eating all day, Rose didn't really find herself wanting to eat it. She took the nearby fork, and tasted a small bit of it. It had a vaguely fishy taste, with a hint of vanilla as well. It wasn't altogether unpleasant, but it was a long way from good.

No one else really seemed to be enjoying it either, though everyone was trying to eat, apparently to please Starfire. Raven was leaning against the counter in the kitchen area, holding her plate and stirring the gelatinous goop around with her fork. Robin was the first to speak.

"So, how did your training with Raven go? Do you have an idea of how to control your powers?" Robin's voice was confident, but it was also pretty obvious that he was just trying to make conversation with a person he didn't know very well.

"It went ok. I mean, I just sort of threw rocks around. It got interrupted by Plasmus anyway."

Cyborg laughed. "Yeah, that blob of goo gave us some trouble today. He was just eating toxic waste though, no real motive other than just being Plasmus."

Beastboy grinned. "I bet you could have beaten him easy! You could make a big bowl out of rock or something, and keep him in there."

Starfire spoke next. Rose couldn't help but smile at the cheery alien girl. "Are you enjoying the glorg? It is a new recipe that I have found."

Rose smiled. "It's good. It's sort of like fish and ice cream. I couldn't have it every day, but it's pretty good I guess."

"So are you going to take your- Uh, Terra's old room? It's kinda the only one we have open." Beastboy was trying pretty hard not to talk too much, which Rose appreciated. At least this dinner of sorts was less intimidating than all the Titans crowding around and talking at once, like last time.

"I guess I could take her room. I don't mind it anyway. I guess I'm sort of starting to think that I might be her anyway." Rose looked down at her food.

Robin nodded. "Anything is possible. I'm going to try to let you figure it out on your own though; I won't press you into testing or anything until you want to know."

Rose smiled. "Thanks, I was afraid you guys were going to get really weird about it. I mean, I guess I understand and all, but still... I'm not the same girl you remember."

"Still, it is wonderful to have a guest with us. It is rare that we are so lucky." Starfire quickly flew around the table, picking up the plates of half-eaten glorg. No one looked full, but Rose supposed that it was common when Starfire cooked.

Cyborg stretched widely, and with a lot of exaggeration. "Man, glorg always makes me tired. I'm headin' to bed."

Robin nodded. "Good idea. Everyone go and get some rest. We have combat practice tomorrow morning. Rose, you can skip the practice if you want, but it might be a good idea to see how well you can use your powers under pressure."

Rose shrugged. "I don't know. I might try it. I just hope I don't make your tower sink into the bay or something."

Raven looked irritated, but the other Titans seemed to brush it off. Beastboy grinned. "Well ok. Everyone's going to bed. See you tomorrow, Ter- uh, Rose."

Rose waved to the Titans as they left through the various doors, leaving a pot full of glorg on the counter and six dirty plates in the sink. Raven was still in the room, and walked over to the sink, pulling out a random plate and cleaning it mindlessly. She spoke quietly. "They were quieter this time."

"Yeah, and Beastboy was less obnoxious. They still all think I'm Terra, though." Rose walked over and took the clean plate from Raven, drying it with a nearby dishtowel.

Raven continued washing the plates in silence, and Rose kept drying them as she finished. After all the plates were done, Raven looked at the pot of glorg, and decided against cleaning it right away. She turned towards Rose, who had just finished drying the last plate. "Want me to show you to your room?"

Rose smiled. "Um, sure. I've been there before, but I don't really know this tower very well."

Rose followed Raven out of a side door in the operations room, and down a long hallway. She passed Raven's room and Beastboy's room before coming to the one labeled with Terra's name. Raven spoke, and she seemed a little tense. "Here it is. Are you going to practice tomorrow?"

Rose shrugged. "Maybe. If I'm a metahuman, I kind of have to be a superhero or supervillain, right? I mean, I can't just live a normal life."

Raven stayed silent a moment. "I guess not. I will see you tomorrow."

Rose pressed the switch to open the door, and waved bye to Raven, who left wordlessly. Rose switched shut the door on the other side, and then looked around Terra's room. The room had a calming effect, with the mural of a peaceful desert mountain landscape, and the stars on the walls and ceiling. The huge window looking out towards the city was nice as a view, but made her feel a little exposed. She pulled the curtain across it, and walked over to the bed, sitting down.

So here she was. Terra's room. If she was trying to dissuade the Titans from thinking of her as Terra, she was doing a pretty bad job of it. Rose sighed, picking up the heart-shaped box from the bedside table and opening it. She looked at her reflection, her own saddened face looking back at her. She closed the box. Mirrors always made her feel weird for some reason.

She lay back on the bed, on top of the covers. She didn't want to undress to sleep, since she had no pajamas to sleep in, and she didn't know how readily the other Titans would open her door to wake her up. She looked up at the stars above the bed, and smiled. She slowly closed her eyes, and drifted off to sleep.

* * *

A/N: Ok! Another chapter done, and it's only been... a long time. Too long, of course. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed reading it, and I hope the few of you that read this will stick around for the next chapter. The next chapter has more Slade, which is more interesting to me anyway. Right, so review if you wanna, and I'll write the next chapter when I am able. 


	6. Impact

Review Responses: 

mattchew: Ok.

Rowlingfan: Thanks for all the support! I'm glad you are enjoying the story, and I hope you'll continue reading despite the long delay. I've tried to keep everyone in character, as well as making the psuedo-OCs Ashley and Shawna act like real people. In any case, thanks for the review, and I hope you enjoy this chapter.

Terra Rock: You're right on the "Ter-uh... Rose" part. I didn't even think of that. Good eye. I'm glad you are enjoying the fic.

Kayasuri-n: I'm not sure that's a compliment, but hey, enjoy this chapter also.

TerraRox: Glad you liked it. Hope this one is as good.

Dr. Evil 99: Raven and Terra do have an odd sort of relationship in this, but I think it works well. We've spoken at length elsewhere, however, and I won't take too much space here. If you chance to read this again, enjoy it.

* * *

A/N: Well, last update was 7.17 or so, and the current date is 10/3. I'd say that's way too long between posts. I will endeavor to make the wait for the next chapter shorter, but I've said that before. Enjoy this chapter anyway.

* * *

Rose woke up slowly, staring up at the stars above her bed. She sat up groggily, rubbing her eyes, and looking around the room. The morning light was shining under the curtain, and the room seemed untouched during the night. Apparently the Titans had respected her privacy. Rose turned, slipping off of the bed and standing up. She felt gross, not having showered for two days running. 

She looked around, spotting a nearby door that didn't lead to the hallway. She walked over to it and pressed the switch. The door opened to reveal a moderately appointed bathroom. There was a note on the counter. The handwriting was very loopy and girlish, and the "i"s were dotted with hearts.

"I have allowed you to borrow my shampoo, if you accept Raven's invitation. It smells like roses, perhaps you will enjoy that. - Starfire"

Rose smiled. Something about Starfire was inherently adorable. She picked up the small bottle of shampoo and uncapped it. It was lightly perfumed, and it wasn't unpleasant at all. Rose saw fresh towels sitting on the toilet seat as well. She pressed the switch on the door again, closing it, and locking it from the inside.

The shower felt nice, cleansing both the physical dirt and the mental strain of the past few days. After toweling herself off, Rose didn't want to wear the same dirty clothes as she had been. Holding the towel tightly around herself, Rose opened the bathroom door again.

The room was still empty, and Rose breathed a sigh of relief. She walked over to what she assumed to be the closet, feeling exposed in the unfamiliar room, and keeping her eyes on the door to the hallway. She fumbled for the latch, then opened the wardrobe door, smiling despite her nervousness at the row of identical costumes.

They were all about her size, maybe a bit small for her, and they fit Terra's description of the costume that Slade had given her. Black top, with an encircled yellow "T" in the middle, and bright yellow shorts. No belt, but Rose assumed that Terra hadn't needed more than one belt. Rose opened the dresser portion of the wardrobe, and found underwear, but realized that she didn't want to wear Terra's underwear, even if they might be the same person. Sighing, she walked back to the bathroom, putting her old underwear back on, and cringing slightly, as she didn't like to wear clothes more than once without washing them.

Dressing herself the rest of the way in one of Terra's uniforms, Rose looked at herself in the mirror. Her hair fell down over the right side of her face, as it had an annoying habit of doing when she was trying to look in the mirror. Something about seeing herself in Terra's clothes bothered her a great deal. Rose frowned. That wasn't the only problem. The clothes had been designed as a superhero outfit, which meant that they were tight. Terra had apparently been a bit smaller than Rose, and the costume was undersized. It was slightly too narrow for her shoulders, as well as a bit tight in general. The shorts hugged her hips too closely as well. Not tight enough to be physically restraining, as the material stretched pretty easily, but she felt weird wearing clothes that didn't hide her body very well. That, and the shirt didn't come down to her waist, which showed her midriff far too obviously for her taste. Rose tended to dress more conservatively.

Rose snatched up Terra's old goggles from the night table where she'd left them, and put them on, tilting them up to her forehead to hold back her hair away from her face. Rose sighed heavily. Time to leave the quiet little room here and go face the loud and annoying Titans. She never knew what to expect when dealing with them.

The door opened with a whoosh of air, and Rose stepped through it, into the silent hallway. The hallway wasn't dark, but it wasn't terribly well lit either. Rose turned towards the common room, hoping that everyone would be in there. She looked at Raven's door as she passed, and considered knocking, just for some companionship, but decided against it. After a short walk, she pressed the switch to open the door to the large room.

Rose let out her breath in relief, as she saw the Titans sitting around the table, waiting on Cyborg to finish cooking what smelled like eggs, sausage, and bacon. Beastboy already had food in front of him, whitish eggs and a block of what Rose assumed was tofu, though she had never had any. Everyone looked up as she entered. She felt a little strange, and knew that she must look strange as well, stepping in with Terra's old costume on.

Robin spoke first. "Uh, hi Rose. Did you sleep well?"

Rose smiled. "Yes, but I didn't have anything to dress in besides this. I... hope you guys don't mind."

Raven looked at her, but something in her eyes was different. Rose felt a chill move through her. Starfire suddenly filled her view as she came flying quickly across the table to hug her. "Oh, we do not mind at all! It is surprising to see you in your old clothes!"

Rose corrected her, her voice a little more irritated than she intended. "Terra's old clothes, you mean."

Starfire was still smiling despite the irritation in her friend's voice. "They are Terra's old clothes. They fit you well, yes?"

Beastboy grinned at Rose from his place at the table. "Well duh, of course they do, she looks exactly the same. But the costume is tighter now than it was then."

Rose suddenly felt self-conscious, covering her chest with her left arm. "Hey! Don't look at me like that!"

Starfire smiled. "You may borrow one of my costumes if you wish. I am taller than Terra was, and my muscles are larger as well. Perhaps it would fit you better?"

Beastboy shook his head. "Star, you're too tall for her. Maybe she could borrow one of Raven's-"

"No." Raven's denial of the suggestion was curt and icy.

Cyborg stepped in as he started doling out food to everyone's plate, from his frying pan. "We'll get you a new costume if you end up stayin', Rose. You can always go home and get your normal clothes anyway. Want any eggs?"

"She most certainly does want some of the eggs!" Rose allowed herself to be pulled across the room by Starfire, though she couldn't have done much to stop her, judging by the strength in the girl's grip. Starfire put her in the seat that Starfire had been sitting in last night. "You will take my chair today."

Rose smiled at Cyborg as he handed her the plate of food. "Um, thanks. So, do you guys take turns cooking, or what?"

Beastboy laughed. "Yeah, except Raven, because she can't cook."

Raven completely ignored him, sitting sideways in her chair and reading a large book, bound in ancient looking leather.

Rose watched as everyone got their food, feeling a little too nervous to just start eating. Raven didn't take any, apparently content with just the cup of tea in front of her, and Beastboy was already eating his tofu eggs, which Rose could only guess they were. Starfire held her plate in her hand, but didn't eat much, as she was busy talking.

"Are you going to join us in combat training this morning, Friend?" Rose assumed 'friend' referred to her, since Starfire was looking at her. The girl was so trusting that it was hard to remind herself that they weren't friends.

"Um, I might try. I mean, I need to get used to it. Metahumans don't get much time to just sit around, I guess." Rose tried the eggs. They were normal eggs. She didn't really know what she'd expected.

Cyborg spoke next. Rose tried to ignore how weird the guy looked with all the metal attached to him. He seemed nice, and she didn't want to mention it. "Girl, we sit around all the time. Have you seen the number of video games over there?"

"Hey, Yeah!" Beastboy spoke with a mouthful of tofu, which bits of sputtered out. He stopped a second, and swallowed, as Raven brushed a white speck off the cover of her book. "Yeah! After training we can play Mega Monkey Challenge! It was your favorite!"

Rose decided to take Raven's example and ignore Beastboy, since he apparently couldn't stop thinking of her as Terra anyway. "Um, Robin, what is the training like? It's not... I mean, I won't get hurt, right?"

Robin nodded, pushing away his now empty plate. "It's dangerous, but we'll turn it down to the lowest level for you. The course won't hurt you, but could fall and hurt yourself. Don't worry though, Raven can heal you if you get injured, and we have an Amazonian healing ray in the medical room, if you are too injured for her to deal with."

Rose gave Robin a skeptical look. "Amazonian heali-"

"She won't get hurt! She did it like a pro the last time she did it for the first time!" Beastboy grinned widely.

Rose sighed. "Whatever. I'll watch one of you guys do it first, I guess."

* * *

The morning sun was warm, but not hot, and there was a nice salty breeze blowing across the island. Rose was still feeling very out of place with the group of loud and boisterous teenagers, but she had to admit that the weather was nice. At the moment however, the weather wasn't her main concern. She was watching as Robin ran through the obstacle course that the Titans were using. 

Robin wasn't on the lowest setting, like they had promised Rose would use, and so the course was a lot more proactive. In between the acrobatic maneuvers that Robin used to move along the path, he had to keep an eye out for fired projectiles and low-energy laser cannons. Rose couldn't help but be impressed at the boy's skill.

Robin finished the course with practiced ease, however, and it had only taken him a little over a minute. He looked over at Rose, and smiled. "Ready to give it a try?"

Rose shrugged, uncomfortable with running the course, but not really wanting to say no in front of everyone. It really wasn't much different than school. She didn't have much time for musing on similarities, however, as she walked to the start of the course and pulled down her goggles.

The other Titans yelled reassurances to her as Robin adjusted the control panel for the course. Rose tugged at her costume, hoping it wouldn't restrain her too much during the course. The course was resetting itself, the large panels that had dropped in Robin's way were pulling themselves back into position, and the laser turrets were lowering the stone caps on themselves again.

"Ok, Rose, the lasers are still going to fire, but they aren't going to be anything more than lights. I'll make sure all the physical traps activate far enough ahead of you that they won't hurt you. Just try to get through as fast as you can." Robin pressed a switch on the control console, and the timer on the front started ticking down from ten.

Rose bounced a little on the balls of her feet, feeling slightly crazy to be even attempting this. The countdown completed, and Rose's eyes widened as the laser turrets popped up immediately.

Deciding to act as if the lasers were actually capable of hurting her, Rose focused, pulling herself up into the air on a stone. The laser bolts flew past her on both sides, only narrowly missing her as she swerved uncontrollably on the rock. She raised her arms, tearing a slab of stone upwards from the ground in front of the turrets, blocking all their shots.

Flying forwards along the path, she saw one of the more nonsensical obstacles that she'd seen Robin dodge, the large steel fists coming up from the ground. She pulled upwards on the stone she was riding, rising high above the upthrust pylons. Sailing high over the panels that had dropped onto Robin, Rose noticed that he didn't even bother dropping them underneath her.

Rose felt confident, flying above all the dangers. Just as she began to think that she had outsmarted the course, she saw a laser turret raise and fire one shot, destroying the rock she was riding on. She dropped from the air, barely having time enough to pull another stone from the ground and latch on to it.

Rose frowned, angry at Robin for having used a potentially deadly weapon. She focused again, pulling the metal in the laser turret into the air, and grinning as the ruined machinery crashed into the ground behind her. She looked ahead again just in time to see the disc launchers begin firing dozens of clay discs at her. Without time for dignity, Rose crashed the stone she was on into the ground, and quickly erected a stone wall in front of her, hearing the satisfying crash of the discs on the other side.

Knowing that the disc launchers were the last obstacle, Rose quickly ran forwards, crossing the finish line in one piece. She smiled and took a mock bow, as Beastboy, Starfire, and Cyborg cheered her survival. Raven was watching her with interest, and Robin was working to reset the course.

"You did great! I told you it'd be fine!" Beastboy ran up and hugged Rose in his excitement, but let go as she pushed him away.

"Wonderful! You did very well for your first time!" Starfire was smiling, as usual.

Rose smiled back, feeling really confident with her powers after beating the obstacle course. "Thanks! How long did I take?"

Cyborg looked at the computer screen on his arm. "Two minutes and ten seconds. Not bad for a beginner."

"Better than your first run, Cyborg." Raven's voice was dryly sarcastic.

Robin walked up to Rose, holding out his hand. "Good work, Rose. Sorry about shooting that rock out from under you, but I needed to make sure you could improvise."

Rose shook his hand, not really sure what else to do. She smiled to show she wasn't mad. "It's ok. It was sort of fun to be shot at and have to use my powers. Sort of a rush, you know?"

Suddenly, Rose electronic melody play from Robin's belt. He pulled his communicator from a compartment, and frowned. "Looks like you might get that rush again. The Hive Five are raiding the mall downtown. We've got to go. You want in?"

Beastboy looked excited. "Yeah, come with us! We won't let you get hurt, and you'll see how fun it is to be a superhero! The Hive Five are easy!"

Rose looked over towards Raven. "What do you think?"

Raven shrugged. "It's dangerous, but we will beat them anyway."

Rose, deciding to throw caution to the wind for a while, nodded. "Ok, let's go."

* * *

The front doors of the mall's jewelry store quivered and exploded, arcs of pink energy flying from the debris. Ignoring the panicked clerk and manager running for their lives, a gray-skinned girl waved her hand nonchalantly at the locked cases. The locks all simply failed, allowing the doors to fall open. Jinx smiled as she collected the gold and silver rings and necklaces, the gems sparkling in her eyes. 

Outside the shop, in the walkway, the demonstration monitors on the kiosk flickered and failed, as a short, bald, odd-looking boy removed the computer from the compartment beneath the desk, aided by a cyclopean, lanky guy. Gizmo laughed. "We can take whatever we want, and the scuzz-munching Titans aren't even here to stop us!"

Chewing on a burger from the nearby food court, an enormous, red-haired man walked nearby, kicking over a candy stand just for fun, then swallowing the burger in one gulp. "Yeah, as long as we get outta here soon, 'dey won't even see us!"

Another teenager, with blue-tinted gray skin, walking with six copies of the same mildly stupid looking skinny teen with a red costume, simply pointed upwards, to the balcony above.

Wasting no time on words, Robin jumped down from the balcony, landing with a powerful kick, knocking a copy of Billy Numerous across the room. "Titans, go!"

Stepping out of the ruined store, Jinx shouted out to her own teammates. "Hive Five! Beta maneuver!"

Rose stayed back from the fight, her confidence from the obstacle course having long faded. She peered down from the balcony, watching the chaos from above.

Several things happened at once. Robin pulled his staff from his belt, and, expanding it, swept it low to the ground, knocking the feet out from under all of the Billy Numerous clones. Starfire flew quickly in from above, firing a green starbolt at Mammoth, throwing him powerfully backwards, and into an ice cream counter. Gizmo reacted more quickly, firing the thrusters on his backpack and launching himself above Cyborg's direct assault, and firing a dozen explosive missiles wildly at the floor, covering the area in smoke. Cyborg soon came falling out of the smoke cloud, having been blasted with a barrage of what looked like eyeballs. Beastboy ran after Jinx, changing into a bull along the way, but tripping over the floor that suddenly broke underneath him, in a splash of pink hexes. Raven glowed black as she formed a bubble of her power around Kyd Wykkyd, blocking his teleporting abilities.

Rose, not wanting to see Cyborg get hurt, focused her powers, lifting a stone wall from the tiled floor, shielding Cyborg from the two villains. Gizmo and Seemore, not expecting the wall, hesitated just a second from confusion, giving Cyborg the chance he needed. A blue beam of sonic energy streaked across the room, colliding with Seemore and smashing him against the nearby computer monitors, leaving him dazed. Gizmo just flew upwards again, looking around for the source of the sudden wall, and spotting Rose, her hands still glowing from her power usage.

"Hey crud-munchers! Who's the new girl?" Without waiting for an answer, Gizmo launched another missile towards Rose, right before being blasted from the air by another shot from Cyborg's sonic cannon.

Rose ducked, hiding behind an instinctively created shield of floor tiling. She felt the floor shiver as the missile collided with the shield, and then stood up to look over it, and back at the combat below.

Seemore and Gizmo were being tied up together by Cyborg, while Raven was smacking Kyd Wykkyd into the floor, apparently hoping to knock him unconscious. Robin was fighting with Mammoth, though basically it looked like he was focusing more on not getting hit than doing any real attacking himself. Beastboy, in the form of a huge ape, was throwing the dozens of copies of Billy Numerous around, but didn't really seem to be accomplishing anything.

Rose didn't want to call attention to herself, and so she ducked down behind her small wall and turned around, only to find herself looking up a the pink-haired girl from before. Rose's eyes widened and she tried to back away, but found herself blocked by her shield. The girl smiled down at her.

"You don't look like much of a superhero. What are you even doing here?" Jinx had her arms crossed over her chest, looking down at Rose smugly.

Rose decided that she might as well stand up and try to look like she knew what she was doing. She stood up, sidestepping slightly so that she could run away if she needed to. "I... I'm with the Titans! Y-You can't scare me!"

Jinx's voice had an odd sound to it, and she was using a very mocking tone. Her expression remained an inscrutable smile. "With the Titans? We fight them every couple days. You aren't a Titan."

Rose backed up as Jinx stepped forwards. "Well I'm going to be! I think. Besides, I've got powers! You can't scare me!"

"Powers?" Jinx's eyes glowed brightly pink. "We all have powers. What are yours?"

Rose kept backing away as Jinx kept walking towards her. She was trying to keep up a brave front, but she knew she couldn't fight a supervillain. She wasn't a superhero! She wasn't supposed to be here!

Rose suddenly fell backwards, as the tiles beneath her feet seemed to buckle by themselves. Jinx stood over her, smiling down smugly. Rose scattered backwards on her hands and feet, and found herself running up to a wall behind her. She could feel her powers activating, but she couldn't even try to stop them right now. "St-stop! I can't... I can't control..."

Jinx kept advancing, apparently enjoying her malicious little game. "Can't control what? I bet yo-"

Jinx stopped talking as Rose's hands began to glow yellow. Rose looked down at her hands, eyes eyes glowing as well. The floor was shaking, and Rose suddenly became very aware that she was on the second story. Jinx looked down at the floor, then back at Rose, and grinned.

"Earthquakes, huh? Well, I can't have you trapping me in rubble." Jinx held out her hands, and Rose panicked as she saw the pink bolt of energy fly towards her. Suddenly, a stone spike erupted from the floor, blocking the shot.

Jinx's eyes widened. "Oh, not just earthquakes then." She grinned again. "Well, this will be fu-"

Jinx was cut off another spike tore through the flooring underneath her, knocking her backwards. Rose shook her head quickly, looking at Jinx. "I- I'm sorry! I'm not doing it!"

The entire mall was shaking violently now, and bits of plaster and ceiling dust were falling through the air. Rose was suddenly aware of Beastboy next to her, holding her arm. "Terra! Calm down!"

"I can't!" Rose could barely see through the yellow haze in her vision. Beastboy suddenly pulled her arm sharply, and her along with it, pulling bother of them to the ground, and barely getting her away from the falling chunk of masonry that smashed into the floor. Rose got up quickly, pulling herself away from Beastboy. She could dimly see Robin and Cyborg arresting the defeated looking Jinx. Rose turned and ran down the mall walkway, trying to get away from the chaos her powers were causing.

Rose felt herself fall suddenly, as the walkway supports crumpled and collapsed. Rose clutched at a falling stone, and felt her powers activate on it, holding her up, hanging by one hand above a twenty foot drop to a concrete floor.

Rose's body suddenly felt strangely cold, and she saw Raven hovering nearby, her eyes glowing bright white. Rose felt Raven's presence in her mind, and tried to let her in. Rose felt her emotions calm quickly, from Raven's help. The earthquake slowed and stopped, and Rose sunk to the floor, sobbing desperately. She felt a hand rest lightly on her shoulder, and looked up to see Raven looking at her with a strange mixture of pity and irritation on her face. Rose looked down the walkway, and saw the other Titans running towards them, carrying the unconscious Hive Five with them. Rose quickly wiped her eyes on her sleeve, feeling stupid for crying in front of so many people. She took Raven's hand, and Raven helped her stand up.

Beastboy ran up first, looking her over quickly. "Are you ok? Did you get hurt?"

Rose forced a smile, but knew it looked weak. "I'm fine, I just sorta... I lost control."

"It's my fault for bringing you along. I keep forgetting that you aren't Terra; you don't have the training she had." Robin was dragging Gizmo and Seemore behind him, wrapped and tied tightly with the cord from his grappling hook.

"It is not your fault, Rose. Perhaps you need more training to learn to control it, yes? It will only take time." Any other time, Rose would have felt surprise at seeing the relatively small girl carrying the huge Mammoth with one arm, but she was still recovering from her own problems.

"I can't... I shouldn't stay in the city... I can't control it." Rose looked at the ground, trying to force her voice to sound normal instead of cracking from her crying.

Cyborg smiled at her, Jinx unconscious over his right shoulder and Kid Wykkyd over his left. He was holding what Rose guessed to be the 'real' Billy Numerous in his left hand. "Don't worry about it. We got the bad guys and no one got hurt. We won't bring you along on any more missions until you can control it, but don't act like you have to run away from everyone."

Rose nodded, smiling weakly. She realized that she'd been worried that the Titans would drag her to prison for damaging the mall, but they seemed nothing but sympathetic. She looked over at Robin and saw him pulling something out of Gizmo's pocket. It was a small, yellow-orange electronic device, with a hexagon shape. It looked very similar the to Titan's communicators.

"Let's find out who they were working with." Robin pressed a switch on the communicator, and held it up, turning his back to the other Titans, so they could watch over his shoulder. Rose worked at getting the grit from the dust floating in the air out of her eyes, blinking and rubbing them with her hands. Suddenly, she heard a voice that made her skin crawl.

"Hello Robin. I see you beat my little team."

Robin's voice came out as almost a growl. "Slade."

It was her father's voice. It was her father's voice. It was her father's voice.

"Of course, I didn't hire them to steal trinkets. I already have what I needed. As always, you are completely predictable, Robin."

"It was a trap." Cyborg's voice carried the sudden realization that they'd all been fooled.

"It was a distraction, and we were distracted." Starfire seemed ashamed that she hadn't seen it sooner.

Rose shook her head slowly. It couldn't be her father. It was just a slow, creepy voice. It was just a guy trying to sound tough. It couldn't be her father. Rose crept towards the Titans, wanting to see the screen, to see that it was just some other guy who sounded similar.

"I don't care what you stole, or where you are! I will find you, and I will make you pay!" Robin's anger seemed to be disconcerting to the other Titans, but Rose wasn't really paying attention to that.

"Pay for what, Robin? Once again you are completely in the dark as to my plans."

Rose finally got behind Cyborg, and moved her head so she could see. That mask!

The man on the screen suddenly stopped speaking, a rare moment of surprise in his voice. "Rose?"

Rose reeled away from the Titans, holding her head. She felt sick. That mask... it was so familiar... Her head was pounding with pain, and images were flashing in front of her eyes, with no cohesion. She saw herself flying on a stone, over a field of wheat, in what looked like the Midwest. She saw her hands, looking like a small child's, with blood on them. Slade. She saw Jump City, but empty and gray, devoid of life. The mask. She saw her friends, Ashley and Shawna, laughing at the lunch table. Her father training. She saw Beastboy looking up at her with pleading eyes, as the earth closed over his head. She saw herself fighting Slade, on a huge column of stone. She saw fire, she saw molten rock, she saw that mask--

"AAAAAAAGH!" Rose screamed as the images overwhelmed her. She could hear the Titans calling her, but they sounded miles away. Her powers activated instinctively, and she felt herself flying upwards through the shattered skylights of the mall, into the air, held steady by the stone she'd raised. Gritting her teeth, Rose took control of her powers, and accelerated the stone, tearing through the sky and across the city.

She could see Starfire and Beastboy fly out of the mall in pursuit, but Starfire turned suddenly, as if she'd been called back. Beastboy simply couldn't fly fast enough to follow her, and quickly was out of sight. Rose banked her sharp turns as she flew through the city as fast as she could, twice scraping the bottom of her stone against buildings as she clumsily navigated. She saw her apartment ahead of her, and slowed herself. She landed the stone behind the building, and ran quickly around to the front, ignoring the surprised doorman, and rushing into an open elevator.

She pressed the button for her floor, and felt the elevator begin to move. Suddenly, she found herself in a situation where she couldn't rush, and she could no longer avoid thinking. Rose leaned her back up against the wall of the elevator, and sank slowly to the floor, staring blankly ahead of her. Terra. Rose. Slade. Her father.

For a few seconds, her mind was a complete blank, as she shut out the world and just existed. The electronic 'ping' of the elevator arriving at her floor shook her from her trance, and she stood shakily, suddenly feeling exhausted. She walked slowly down her hallway, though she felt out of place in it now. The door to her apartment had police tape across it, but was closed and locked. Rose tore the police tape away absent-absentmindedly, then found that she'd left her key in her clothes back at Titan's Tower. Frowning, Rose tore the lock apart with her powers, and the door slowly creaked open.

Rose stepped into the apartment, pushing the door closed, though the doorknob was laying in pieces on the ground. Rose moved the nearby trashcan with her foot, pushing it in front of the door so that it wouldn't just fall open. The lights were off in the apartment, but light filtered through the window blinds. Rose walked slowly towards her room, unsure of what she'd really expected to happen once she got here. Stopping suddenly, she opened the door to her father's training room.

Everything seemed normal, though she rarely bothered to come in here. Rose walked across the room quickly, and opened the door to her father's equipment closet. She looked over the various martial training equipment, as well as the swords and other melee weapons. Nothing unusual. Rose turned quickly, heading out to the hallway, and opening the door to her father's room.

It was exactly as always, immaculately clean, his bed looking as if he never slept there, no clothes on the floor, not a single thing out of place. Rose walked to his closet, and opened it. Normal clothes, no Slade costumes, no masks. Rose reached up, pulling a box from the shelf in the top of the closet, and letting it fall to the floor. She opened it. Clothes. She pulled another box. Clothes. Clean clothes, that she'd never seen her father wear.

Sighing, Rose gave up the search for evidence, and walked back to her own room, sitting on her floor and staring blankly forward. She idly reached over and picked up the stuffed animal her father had given her on her birthday, a small brown bear. She smiled slightly as she held it.

Suddenly, a thought passed her mind. No longer smiling, she carefully placed the bear on her nightstand, and then opened her closet. It was exactly as she'd left it, her clothes hanging on hangers and her shoes on the floor. Her new shoes. Her new clothes. Rose looked up, pulling the box of her old things from the top of the closet. She set the box on her bed, and opened it. These were the clothes she had from when her memories started. Some pink rabbits and other stuffed animals as well. She pushed the box aside, and looked back to the top shelf. Nothing else there.

Nothing older than her memories.

Rose ran quickly back to her father's room, then looked again at his closet. Something was different. The apartment was designed to have three bedrooms, each equal in size and shape. She had one, one was her fathers, and the other had become his training room. His closet was different than hers. It was... bigger. Not side to side, but deeper.

Rose quickly ran back to her room, and looked at her closet again. Yes! Yes, her father's closet was larger! Frowning, Rose closed her eyes, and used her powers again, reaching out. She felt the cinder block walls of the building, and the steel skeleton of it as well. She felt her lamp, and her small video game system on the floor. What caught her mind, however, was the metal she could sense behind her closet. Hundreds of separate parts of metal. The back wall of her closet was also metal. Rose gnashed her teeth, and pulled with her powers. The back wall of her closet first buckled outwards, then tore from the rest of the wall. Rose tossed it to the floor of her room, and looked at the boxes of robotics that were sitting behind the false wall.

* * *

Slade, in his civilian clothes, walked down the hallway to the apartment quickly. The police tape was gone, and the doorknob was in pieces. Not a good sign. 

Slade pushed the door open, hearing the trashcan scrape along the floor behind it. Slade stepped through, ignoring the door staying open, and looked around the apartment cautiously. The lights were off, and everything seemed normal, except that light was shining out from under Rose's door.

Walking forward nearly silently, Slade approached the door, and hesitated a moment before opening it. Deciding against acting too unusual, he knocked quietly. There was no response from the other side. Slade reached down and turned the doorknob, opening the door.

Rose was sitting in the middle of her floor, wearing her Terra uniform, holding a small teddy bear, and surrounded by robotics equipment. The false wall from her closet was casually tossed on the floor, bent and buckled as if she'd used her powers on it. Slade kept his voice nonconfrontational. "Rose?"

Rose looked up at him, her eyes slightly glistening with tears. She opened her mouth as if to talk, but hesitated a moment. "... Daddy?"

"what are you doing, Rose?"

Rose looked around at the robotic parts, and then at the box at her feet. Her vulnerable expression faded, and she set the teddy bear down carefully nearby. When she looked back up at him, her eyes were angry. "Where is it, 'daddy'?"

The inflection on 'daddy' was heavy, and full of contempt. Slade stayed silent, not certain what she was asking.

"Where is my old stuff, 'daddy'? Didn't I have clothes when I was a little girl? What about toys? Did I have a doll house? Where is it?" Rose stood, looking at Slade with fierce eyes. Her voice was thick with accusation.

Slade furrowed his eyebrows, angry at her insolent tone. "Of course you did. We didn't need it when we moved here. It was left behind."

Rose looked at him, staring into his eye. A few moments passed in silence. Rose turned away, looking down at the box again. "So I was right. You don't have it. I didn't have anything then."

"It's in storage, in our old town. Give me a day or tw-"

"I don't believe you, daddy." Rose's voice was quiet, and she was no longer placing emphasis on 'daddy'. She knelt down, and picked something up from the box, looking at it. Slade couldn't see it from where he was standing.

"I can't believe you anymore." Rose turned around quickly, and tossed the orange and black robot faceplate to the floor. It skittered across the carpet for a foot or two, and rested at Slade's feet.

* * *

A/N: I will try to get the next chapter out before three more months pass! Thanks for bearing with me to the few who are reading this story. Hope you liked the chapter, please review! 


	7. Pause

Review Responses: 

TerraRox: Glad you liked the chapter! Hopefully this one will be as good.

Kayasuri-n: Nope, not quite three months. Slade is a slippery guy though, so you never know.

Mattchew: I updated sooner. A lot of people don't like Slade, and Rose is starting to seem a bit more like Terra, so who knows what happens if she fights him?

CalliopeMused: Firstly, thanks again for betareading chapter seven. However, we've spoken about your review already, so there you go.

* * *

A/N: A rare quick update. This chapter is somewhat low on action, but I enjoyed writing it nonetheless. The next chapter is looking to be a bit more exciting. Enjoy!

* * *

Slade looked down at the mask for a moment, then back to Rose. Rose felt her hands ball into fists, and she could see her father's muscles tense as well. He seemed to think for a moment, and then spoke. 

"What do you intend to do, child?"

Rose frowned. "That doesn't matter. You lied to me! Why did you lie to me? You aren't my father! You're some supervillain or something!"

Slade's eyebrows furrowed, and Rose felt a chill move through her. His voice was calm and collected as always. "What would you have preferred? Waking up alone and amnesiac in a dark cave, with no powers and no food?"

"The Titans would have checked! They knew I was down there! They would have come in eventually!" Rose was shouting. She was certain that their neighbors could hear, but didn't care.

The calm voice continued. "They didn't. Beastboy hasn't been to that cave since you awoke, excepting one trip after he saw you recently. You would have died of starvation and thirst, alone and terrified."

Rose looked at the floor, furious at his calmness in the face of her realization.

"Besides, child, what would you have done if they had found you? They would have forced you to become Terra again. Do you really want your entire life to be spent fighting other metahumans?"

"No! But I... I mean, you kidnapped me! What kind of a freak takes a girl he barely knows and makes her into his daughter?" Rose was trying to keep herself angry, but she couldn't deny the logic behind Slade's responses.

Slade stood with his hands behind his back, staring at Rose with what seemed like pity and derision at once. "Have I not done as a father should? I didn't mold you into a weapon. I provided you with food, shelter, clothing, education, and everything else you needed. I helped you with your schoolwork. What have I done that was so evil?"

"You used me! You took me and lied to me and made me believe you! I hate you!" Rose felt her control over her powers slip, but she allowed it for the moment. She wanted Slade to know how angry she was.

Slade's expression didn't change, as the floor shook slightly under them.

"Damn it, Daddy! Do something! Tell me why!" Rose felt her control slipping more, and she could feel the floor moving, and heard some of her books falling from the shelves in her room.

Slade simply spoke a number. "Three hundred and fifty."

Rose looked up at Slade, not understanding. "What? What are you--"

"It's eleven thirty. Most people are at work, or at school, or shopping. Taking a quarter of the population of this building leaves us at three hundred and fifty people."

Rose frowned. "What are you telling me thi-"

"In an earthquake powerful enough to destroy this building, eighty percent of them will die. That's two hundred and eighty people you will be killing if you attack me here. Men, women, and children."

Rose's eyes widened. No... no, she couldn't do that. No matter how angry she was as her fath... at Slade. She closed her eyes tightly, trying to reign in her powers. She spoke under her breath as she did so. "Azerath, Metrion, Zinthos... Azerath, Metrion, Zinthos..."

Her powers slowly calmed, and the earthquake subsided. She opened her eyes slowly, looking at her hands, which no longer glowed, then up at Slade, still standing in the same pose.

Slade spoke quietly. "Interesting."

Rose sighed, looking at her mess of a room, most of her possessions having fallen out of place during the earthquake. "Daddy..."

He simply stayed silent, looking at her.

"Go away."

Slade nodded once, and immediately turned away from her, closing the door behind him. Rose listened to his heavy footsteps leave the apartment. Rose felt her knees buckle, and she fell, sitting on her knees, looking at the closed door. He was gone.

* * *

Rose stared at the ceiling of her living room. She was laying on the couch, trying to think her way through this. After Slade had left, she'd spent a long time walking around the apartment in a daze, trying to figure out what to do next. Everything was muddled and confused, and eventually fell asleep on the couch. She'd woken up a few minutes ago, and everything was still muddled and confused. 

Forcing herself to try to think logically and work out some way to at least start to fix her life, Rose went back over the plans she'd thought of.

She could join the Titans. Get trained to fight the monsters and the villains they fight. Of course, she couldn't really picture herself fighting in life or death situations for the rest of her life, so that didn't seem like a good idea.

She could try to find her fath-- try to find Slade, and see what he wanted with her. Maybe he would some idea of what to do. Rose scowled. Not yet. Maybe someday, but not yet.

Rose sighed. There weren't many options. She couldn't just go back to school, and she couldn't try to live by herself with no high school diploma and no real job skills. She couldn't be "Rose Wilson" anymore, because she'd just be arrested. Rose had no idea how to make a new identity for herself, so it wasn't like she could just be someone else.

Idly picking up the television remote, Rose pressed the power button. The screen brightened quickly, showing the evening news. Shrugging, Rose decided to just go ahead and watch it, if for no other reason than to have something else to focus on.

"-just saying that Jump City needs to take these threats more seriously. Though no one has been killed so far, there's no telling how long this--"

Two people were debating, though it was much closer to arguing, about some topic or another. Rose didn't recognize either participant, and apparently the debate had been going on long enough that the names were no longer being displayed.

"Whatever she is, she don't seem to be the type to wantonly take lives. Rose Wilson has done nothing but run away from the police. She's not dangerous, she's terrified."

Rose sat up straight on the couch. They were talking about her. They were talking about her, by name.

"They aren't mutually exclusive. She's already caused thousands of dollars in damages, to both buildings and people's personal possessions. The earthquake at the mall alone--"

"Helped to stop the Hive from whatever their objective was, as the Titans have already publicly stated. The Titans have done an admirable job protecting this city, despite their youth, and I value their statement that she isn't a criminal."

Rose felt strange. Something about this broadcast was disturbing to her, and it wasn't just that they were talking about her like a criminal.

"The Titans wouldn't answer any questions about her though, and I think it's because they couldn't. For that matter, no one seems to know anything about this girl, other than a few photos from bystanders and her old school, she seems to have no history at all. Some of the students at her school has confirmed that she was an amnesiac."

"What are you suggesting? That's she's a clo--"

Rose turned off the television, squinting her eyes as her head pounded with pain again. The images were clearer this time, and she could hear voices. She saw Slade meditating, heard his voice telling her how. She saw an angry mob of people, from above, as if she was flying, throwing stones at her and shouting, calling her a murderer. She saw Slade again, dismantling what looked like a Titans communicator. She saw Beastboy again, hanging desperately to the edge of a chasm. "Terra... You can't..."

Rose screamed, silencing the images in her mind and hearing the window shatter from her powers. She pulled a stone up from the ground below once more, ignoring the panicked screams of the people on the street. She jumped out of her window, onto the floating chunk of sidewalk and asphalt, gripping what used to be the street curb tightly, and jetting away from her apartment.

* * *

She flew quickly, towards the large T-shaped tower on the horizon. Rose frowned. She didn't relish becoming a superhero, or a villain, but she couldn't stay Rose Wilson for very long. She couldn't go to prison, and she refused to go to her father. Besides, she was beginning to feel like... like she hadn't always been anything near "Rose Wilson", and that she had to accept it. 

She could see the flashes of black and green that signified combat, just outside Titans' tower. However, Rose assumed it was just training, as she saw only five figures on the island anyway. She aimed her stone slightly to the side of them.

Though the stone was crumbling as she flew, it thankfully lasted long enough for Rose to make a somewhat dignified landing on the island, instead of crashing into the water again. She jumped from the stone as she came close to the ground, allowing it to land by itself, crashing into the dirt. The Titans, having noticed her from a distance, had stopped training, and now approached her with a friendly look, if a bit cautious.

Robin spoke first. "Nice to have you back. What happened back at the mall?"

Rose brushed herself off, and tried to smile. "Um, I'm not sure. I think I might have remembered something. I saw things. I think they were Terra's memories."

Beastboy's grin was full of happiness, but Rose still couldn't stop herself from being irritated at him anyway. "You remembered? That's great! Are you going to move back in now?"

"No. I mean, maybe. But not as Terra. Look, I just need a place to stay. I can't stay at home, I'm having... family troubles."

Beastboy raised an eyebrow, looking a bit comical on his face. "Family troubles? What family? Aren't you parents dea-ow!"

Beastboy rubbed his side where Raven had elbowed him. Raven's voice was tinted with what sounded like concealed anger, but Rose didn't know her well enough to be certain. "What did you remember, exactly?"

Rose thought back, trying to remember exactly what she'd seen. "I... I'm not sure. It's all just blurry pictures. I remember flying on stones, and I remember Slade..." Rose shuddered a moment here, and caught a strange look from Raven. "Anyway, also I think... Terra might have killed people... I do remember seeing Beastboy fall into a pit, and he was telling me... Telling Terra that she couldn't do that."

Beastboy frowned and looked away, but Raven simply looked at Rose's eyes. Rose felt kind of strange, like she was being judged again. Starfire broke the weirdness, however, by flying up in front of Rose and putting her hands on Rose's shoulders. "You are welcome here for as long as you need. I am certain that Robin will agree."

Robin nodded. "Of course. Just... try to keep your powers under control."

"Ok, I'll try. It's just when things get too crazy that they go off. Plus, I can do that thing Raven taught me and calm down anyway." Rose smiled at Raven, but Raven simply nodded back.

Cyborg looked around. "Well, it's getting dark. Let's go back in. We'll pick up training tomorrow."

The Titans nodded, walking back towards the tower, and Rose followed. Beastboy started walking slower, and then matched her pace when he was beside her. "So, you remember beating me, huh? 'Terra, you can't', that part, right?"

The green teenager sounded strangely serious, and Rose felt like she should at least be cordial. The other Titans were walking ahead of them, and talking amongst themselves, planning dinner apparently. Rose couldn't help but feel like they were specifically giving her and Beastboy time to talk. "I... I think I remember it. I'm sorry for doing it, I would never try to hurt you guys."

Beastboy smiled, but his eyes were a bit sad. "Yeah, but you aren't really Terra. Raven said that you might have been before, but you... well, she said your mind was different."

Rose nodded. "Yeah, I think... I don't know. I might have been Terra. I just don't know."

Beastboy typed in a code for the door, which had closed behind the other Titans. The door opened quickly, and Rose repeated the code a few times in her head, in case she ever needed it. "What kind of family problems are you having? I mean, Terra's parents were dead."

Rose sighed. "My... well, I guess he's still sort of my dad... anyway, he's... not who I thought he was." Rose didn't want to reveal that her father was the Titans' arch enemy just yet. Raven didn't really seem to trust her at the moment anyway, and besides, if the Titans kicked her out because of it, she'd have nowhere to stay but Terra's old cave.

"Yeah, I've had some bad foster parents too." Beastboy looked at the floor a moment, but then smiled at Rose again. "But the Titans are the best family you could have!"

Rose and Beastboy came to the other Titans, who had been waiting at the elevator at the back of the large entry hall. Cyborg grinned at them. "You two ready to go now?"

Everyone walked into the elevator, though it was a bit crowded. It didn't really seem as if the elevator had even been designed for all the Titans to use. Rose assumed they normally just flew up to the roof and went down one floor, instead of taking the elevator.

"Please friend, tell me. What would you like for dinner? It is Robin's turn to cook, and he is good at most things, and he is not terrible at cooking." Starfire was smiling brightly, and Rose couldn't help but smile back.

"Um, whatever you guys want is fine. I'm just a guest, you don't have to ask me."

Robin smiled. "I'll figure something out. Maybe I'll just order pizza."

"Dude! Don't try to get out of your turn to cook!"

Rose smiled as the Titans mock argued like old friends. The elevator doors opened, and they all started walking towards the kitchen area. Rose noticed Raven walk out of the room during the commotion, but no one else seemed to think anything of it. "Hey, I'm going to go take a look at my room, ok? I'll be back in a bit."

Robin nodded at her. "We'll be here. Beastboy told us you're allergic to anchovies, so we'll order our normal pizza, and you can take whatever you like."

Rose nodded. "Sure, ok."

* * *

If anyone noticed Rose going into the wrong hallway, following Raven instead of going to her room, they didn't say anything. Rose walked down the quiet corridor, the sound from the kitchen having been entirely blocked by the metal door closing behind her. It was a bit dark in the hallway; and coupled with the unfamiliar place, it set Rose a little on edge. She passed a few doors before coming to the one labeled "Raven". Unsure of what else to do, Rose knocked lightly. 

It was few seconds before the door opened slightly, revealing Raven's face, though Rose couldn't see much of her room behind her. Raven seemed a bit surprised to see Rose there alone, but her voice was somewhat cold and irritated. "What?"

"I... uh... Well, you looked at me kinda weird back there, and then walked off by yourself. Are you ok?" Rose felt strange talking to Raven through the door frame, but didn't feel like she could just barge into her room.

Raven nodded. "Yes. It's beginning to look like you are Terra."

Rose sighed. "You didn't like her."

"No, I didn't." Raven was acting very cold towards her, and Rose didn't like that she was losing whatever ties they'd formed over the past few days.

"Look, can I come in or something? I mean, I don't like talking through the door like this, and I feel stupid standing out in the hallway."

Raven seemed to hesitate for a moment, but then stepped aside, sighing. Rose walked through the door, and looked around in the dim light. Shelves lined with books, strange arcane statues, and odd, swooping black shapes on the walls all made Rose question Raven's decorative sense. Rose looked back towards Raven, who had closed the door and was now leaning back against it. She seemed like she was waiting for Rose to say something.

"Raven, look, I know we don't know each other that well, but you're the closest thing I have to a friend right now. Don't start hating me just because I might have been Terra."

Raven's face changed slightly, and Rose thought it might even be a look of guilt. "I don't... hate you. I didn't even hate Terra. I've told you things that she didn't know. I even let you in here. I don't want to be betrayed again."

Rose smiled. "Hey, I understand, seriously. Look, I'm not Terra, and I'm not going to go crazy and attack you guys, ok? I could barely even fight Jinx earlier."

"But you are hiding something." Raven's face darkened, her eyebrows furrowed. "I can't tell what it is, and I'm not going to just take the information, but you are hiding something."

Rose blanched, seeing Raven angry wasn't something she liked. She knew the girl was powerful, and something about her made Rose uneasy in general. "Look, I wasn't... I mean, I just don't want to talk about it yet."

Raven looked at Rose for a few moments, and Rose tried not to flinch and look away. The silence hung in the room heavily, but then Raven let out a quiet sigh. "Fine. I don't sense any malice from you, and to be honest, you aren't a fighter. At least not anymore."

Raven looked around her room, seemingly just to look at something besides Rose. "However, don't assume you have anyone fooled. Robin is observant, and knows you are hiding something. Starfire and Cyborg also can tell, but they would never ask about it. Beastboy is still somewhat overwhelmed that you are back at all; I don't think that he's concerned or even thinking about betrayal."

Taking the liberty to sit down on Raven's bed, Rose sighed. "Look, if I tell you, you won't tell the others, right?"

Raven nodded silently.

"Well, it's about my father. Well, adoptive father, I guess." Rose pulled her legs up, hugging them to her chest. She felt very uncomfortable about this. "He's... well, I just sort of found out that he's... um... Slade."

Raven's eyes widened. "What?"

Rose couldn't help but be amused by Raven's sudden lack of emotional control, but didn't let her face show it. "Yeah, I know. I don't know what to do about it. I feel like none of you guys will trust me if you knew, but I felt like I could tell you. I mean, I don't know why, but I feel like I know you better than the others. You didn't freak out about me as much, anyway."

"You didn't see it as much, and it wasn't for the same reasons." Raven's voice was back to normal, and her face was again emotionless.

"I guess I couldn't really have wished for a worse dad though."

Raven made a sound that might have been a dark chuckle if anyone else had done it. "There are worse fathers to have. At least he's not your biological father."

Rose nodded. "I wonder who mine was. Do you know? Who Terra's biological parents were, anyway?"

"No." Raven shook her head slowly. "Terra and I didn't talk that much. If anyone knew, it was Beastboy. Possibly Slade."

Rose looked at the floor. "You aren't... going to judge me based on my dad, right? I mean, all the time I can remember, I've been with him, but... I'm not like that."

Raven stayed silent for a long time, and Rose wasn't sure how to interpret that. When she spoke, her voice was sad, but carefully guarded. "No, I won't. I can understand that. If I had told the others who my father was when they first met me..." Raven sighed heavily. "I wouldn't be a Titan."

"Why not?"

Raven sat on a chair, near the bed. She looked across the room, and Rose thought her eyes rested a moment on her vanity mirror on the desk. "You remember that I said I wasn't metahuman. That I'm... demonic."

Rose nodded, then realized what she was saying. "Your father? He was a... demon?"

"Trigon the Terrible. The name probably doesn't mean anything to you." Raven sighed. "He's the very incarnation of evil. Several major religions on Earth have other names for him, but he's always the great evil of the world. I was supposed to be his... portal. He was to come to Earth through me."

Rose, with no idea what to say, just watched Raven.

"It doesn't matter where you came from, or who your father is." Raven stood, and Rose took it as signifying the end of the conversation. "I won't tell the others. You should though, before Robin finds out on his own."

Rose nodded, standing as well. "Raven, thanks for talking to me. I really don't know what to do about my dad."

Raven looked a Rose for a moment. "I don't know either. No one can make that decision but you. However..." Raven hesitated. "I don't know what kind of a father Slade was to you, but he's a manipulative and evil man. Don't trust him and don't believe anything he has ever told you. Be careful around him."

"I... I really don't think he'd hurt me. I mean, he was sort of a normal dad." Rose walked behind Raven as Raven opened her door and stepped into the hallway.

"He hurt Terra. Don't talk about this now, though. Starfire is probably back with the pizza by now. Let's go eat." Raven's voice left no room for dissent, and Rose walked alongside her silently, back towards the kitchen.

* * *

Rose and Raven met Beastboy on the way back to the kitchen, and he grinned as he saw them. "Hey Rose. We weren't sure where you were when you weren't in your room. Star is back with the pizza." 

Smiling at the green boy, Rose tried to dispel the weirdness of confessing her father's identity to Raven by acting normal. "What kinds did she get?"

Raven continued walking, a step ahead of Rose and Beastboy. She seemed uninterested in conversing with Beastboy at all. Beastboy didn't seem to mind though, still grinning. "The normal thing. Supreme for Robin, Meat Lovers for Cyborg," Beastboy made a face of disgust. "Eugh. Anyway, cheese for Raven, and cheeseless tofu for me. Uh, I forget what Star got. Something with limes, I think."

"Limes? Who puts limes on pizza?"

Beastboy shrugged. "Star is weird with food. You had the glorg yesterday."

Rose laughed, and felt like she hadn't done it in too long. She noticed that Beastboy seemed to perk up immediately at her laugh. She wondered just how close he and Terra had been, but didn't want to ask such a weird question right now. "I'll probably just have some of everyone's. They don't mind, right?"

"'Course not." The three teenagers passed through the doorway, back into the operations room, to see the other Titans laughing and eating from their respective pizzas.

"Wonderful! You have decided to join us! Please, you must try this!" Rose stepped back slightly as the cheery alien girl swooped over, holding a piece of strange-looking pizza.

Rose took it cautiously. "Uh, thanks, Starfire. What is this? Lime and... kiwi?"

Starfire nodded, smiling. "Yes, with sausage. It is very interesting!"

Rose didn't really feel like she should just refuse to taste it, and so she took a tentative bite. 'Interesting' was putting it mildly, but it wasn't good at all. Rose forced herself to swallow, but couldn't help making a face. "Geaghh! Uh, it was very... unique?"

Starfire giggled warmly. "To be truthful, you are the first one who is not me to have tried it. The others refused. I thank you. You may have that piece!"

Rose allowed Starfire to take her by the hand and gently pull her across the room, to the table, seating her in a new, sixth seat. "We have found this extra seating in the basement. Since you may be here for some time, it is good to have, yes?"

Rose nodded, looking around for a place to set the somewhat disgusting slice of pizza down. She eventually just laid it in an empty spot in Starfire's pizza box. She instead took some of Robin's, looking to him for confirmation that it was ok.

"Go ahead, eat as much as you want. You probably had a tiring day." Robin seemed friendly enough, if slightly overwhelming in his loud confidence. "Sorry your first mission with us wasn't exactly perfect."

"It was ok for the most part. I've never really seen you all fighting like that before. It was amazing." Rose tried to avoid the topic of her accidental power use during the battle.

Beastboy passed Rose a piece of tofu pizza, which she took politely, unsure if she really wanted to try it. "You can fight like that too! Well, once you train with us a while, anyway. Then you can show Jinx who's boss!"

"Isn't she in jail now?"

Cyborg laughed. "Yeah, but we all know how long that's gonna last. We fight the Hive Five about every other week."

The tofu pizza wasn't bad. Not as much flavor as Robin's, but not as bad as Starfire's. "What do you guys do besides train and fight? I mean, there has to be other stuff to being a superhero, right?"

"Depends who you ask. Try this; it's good." Cyborg handed Rose a piece of his pizza as well. "BB and I play video games, Robin doesn't do much of anything besides train and study. Starfire does all kinds of stuff. Raven mostly reads. I also mess around with my car down in the garage pretty often."

"That is reminding me! We must go to the mall of shopping sometime! I have not been in quite a while, as Raven no longer will come with me." Starfire looked excited at the prospect.

Rose smiled. "Sure, Starfire. I'd be happy to go. Uh, assuming the cops won't be there, and they have it repaired."

Robin waved his hand dismissively. "The police won't bother you. At least, not much. Metahumans in general tend to make law enforcement nervous, but the most they'll do is follow you around. They wouldn't arrest anyone traveling with a Titan."

"You're being kinda quiet, Rae. What's up?"

Raven looked at Cyborg quickly, as if she hadn't expected to be addressed. "I'm just... thinking about something. It's not important."

Rose finished the piece of meat lovers, then held up her hand, refusing another piece of tofu. "Uh, no thanks. I'm kinda full. I can't eat that much. Actually, I'm kinda tired."

Robin nodded. "Go get some sleep. Who knows what will happen tomorrow? You need to be rested."

Standing, Rose smiled. "Thanks for the food, guys, and... you know, letting me stay here."

Beastboy grinned. "No problem! What are friends for, right?"

Rose smiled and walked away from the table, towards her room. She waved as the metal door closed behind her, and then sighed heavily. No matter how nice they were, being around the Titans was exhausting. They seemed to need to fill every second with talking and movement, and Rose couldn't help but wonder if they ever actually relaxed. She shook the thoughts out of her head, and started walking down the hallway.

Even if it was exhausting, living with the Titans was certainly better than living alone, or trying to stay with her father again. Rose scolded herself. She had to stop thinking of Slade as her father. He was a criminal, and apparently a pretty violent one, by Raven's descriptions and demeanor when talking about him.

* * *

Rose reached Terra's room without incident, and pressed the button on the wall panel to open the door. Stepping inside, she closed it again, unsure exactly how to lock it. The Tower made her feel like she was in some science-fiction television show. 

She walked across the room, then turned and let herself fall backwards onto the bed, staring at the starry ceiling once again. Terra's room was really odd. Rose's apartment had always been very sparsely decorated, and coming from that into this room with a mural covering all of the walls and extending to the stars painted on the ceiling was disorienting.

Rose sat up, looking around the room again. Despite the wall decorations, there wasn't really much in the room as far as entertainment. It seemed like Terra either didn't really spend any time here, or all of her things had been removed by the Titans between then and now. A glint of metal caught Rose's eye, and she stood, walking over to the small table with the mirrored box on it.

Picking up the heart-shaped box, and opening it, she looked at herself again in the small mirror inside. Rose smiled, not sure why she found herself almost surprised that she looked no different now than a few days ago, when she was just a normal girl. Well, besides the lack of makeup. The box still made her feel strange. She set it down gently, closing it as she did so.

There had definitely been something more than friendship between Terra and Beastboy, and Rose couldn't shake the somewhat disturbing idea that Beastboy expected that it would turn out that way again. Rose really hadn't had to deal with male admirers that often before, as it seemed that every time a guy seemed to be getting close to asking her out, he'd suddenly start acting as if he wasn't allowed to talk to her. Rose frowned. Now that she thought about it, her 'father' might have had something to do with that.

Rose sighed, and walked over to the window, looking out over the bay, to the lights of the city on the distant shore. It was a pretty view, and it was a calming feeling to stand there and stare into the night. Rose suddenly felt exhausted, another long day finally ending. She walked over to the bed, and lay down, trying to get comfortable despite the knowledge that the door wasn't locked.

Closing her eyes, Rose fell almost immediately into a dreamless sleep. She woke up almost before she even realized she'd slept, but the stiffness in her joints and the dry taste in her mouth reminded her that she must have slept for hours, even before she noticed the light streaming in from outside. Rose sat up slowly, rubbing her eyes and trying to find her bedside clock for a few moments, before remembering that she wasn't at home. The empty nightstand next to her bed reminded her that she no longer had a set time to wake up in the morning, since she no longer had school.

She stretched widely, smiling as she did so, and getting out of bed shortly after. The bed cover was still relatively unused, since she hadn't really felt comfortable sleeping underneath the covers of what still felt like someone else's bed. Rose staggered over to the bathroom, finding that Starfire's shampoo was still in there, as well as her dirty clothes from the day before. She kicked her clothes into the corner, not really in the mood to pick them up at the moment.

A quick shower later, Rose found herself again wishing she'd thought to bring extra clothes with her. She dressed fully in Terra's old clothing now, piling her old clothes in the corner until she thought of something else to do with them. Suddenly, something on the nightstand caught her attention.

The small table had been empty before her shower, she knew it, because she'd been looking for her clock there. Rose walked over to the nightstand slowly, looking around to make certain she was alone. The room was empty, and there was no indication that anyone had been there.

Rose reached out, but stopped short of picking up the small, butterfly shaped hairpiece laying directly in the center of the table.

* * *

A/N: I'm glad to get this update out so quickly, but don't expect the next chapter next week, because it's not likely. In any case, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, actionless and dialogue-heavy though it was. Please review, and see you in chapter eight. 


	8. Earthquake

Review Responses:

E-san: I'm glad you like the way it's going. It wasn't a terribly long update time. There have been worse. I have no idea if the hairpiece had a backstory in the show. It was never mentioned specifically. But yes, it was freaking creepy that he just reached out and put it in her hair like that, and poor Terra flinched away like it freaked her out too. Fun times. Slade's a freako.

Rurouni Tyriel: I'm glad you are enjoying it. This chapter has a bit of each dialogue and action. Hope you like it.

Kayasuri-n: It does. Here's the next chapter.

CalliopeMused: Hope you enjoy your second reading of this chapter.

* * *

A/N: Sorry for the long wait between chapters, but you should be used to it by now. This chapter has a bit of a major change in the story, and things only accelerate from here. Anyway, enjoy the fic!

* * *

Rose reached out again, slowly. The hairpiece didn't explode or anything, and Rose felt a little silly for assuming that it might. She picked it up gently, looking at it carefully. Her father had given her one of these when she'd first awoken, but she'd lost it at school. 

Not knowing what else to do with the thing, and not wanting to wear it in case the Titans would recognize it as something of Terra's, Rose simply put the piece of plastic into her pocket. Sighing, she looked around her room again. Nothing seemed to have been disturbed; it was as if the hairpiece had just appeared on the nightstand by itself.

Rose stepped out into the hallway, looking both ways with caution. No one was out in the hallway trying to kill her or anything, and she smiled to herself. Whatever Slade was doing, at least he didn't seem to be immediately threatening her. Rose walked down the hallway towards the operations room, where she assumed the other Titans would be. Rose felt like it was late morning, for some reason, and so she assumed that everyone else would be awake by now.

The corridor was long and dark, but Rose was feeling more confident in the Tower. Everyone seemed pretty friendly, with the possible exception of Raven. Even Raven seemed to be trying especially hard to be kind to Rose, but Rose wasn't sure why. Regardless, Rose felt she really couldn't be much safer than staying in a superhero team base.

Hearing voices beyond the metal door to the kitchen and living room, Rose slowed herself down. The tone of the voices made it sound like she shouldn't just barge through the door. Instead, she pressed her ear against it, without pressing the button to open it.

"--the same girl. I took DNA material from her clothes yesterday, and ran it off the blood samples we have from Terra. She's the same person."

Rose's eyes widened. That was Robin. He knew for certain that she'd been Terra!

"That's not cool, man. She said she didn't want you runnin' tests." Cyborg was keeping his voice low, but it carried pretty well anyway.

Raven's voice was next, and she sounded pretty angry. "Why did you even run the test? It's obvious who she was. I've already told that she's not the same girl anymore."

"Because I had to be sure, Raven. We're dealing with Terra here, and even if she's not the same girl, we have to be careful. The old Terra nearly killed all of us."

"But in the end she defeated Slade. Certainly that must count for something?" Starfire's voice sounded cheery, but it was obviously a front.

Beastboy's voice was quiet and sad. "Yeah, and then she died to save us. It doesn't matter if Rose has the same DNA. Terra is dead."

A silence fell over the other Titans, and Rose found that she now had absolutely no way of entering the room without it being obvious that she'd been listening. Robin had been snooping around in her clothes and running tests on her, even after she'd told him not to. Rose sighed. It's not like she could really blame him. Terra had really made a mess of the Titans when she was there, apparently.

Rose turned away from the door, and walked slowly back through the hallway, unsure of where she was going, but not wanting to enter the room with all the Titans during such a strange conversation. She thought about her situation as she walked, but found her thoughts simply running in circles, retracing all the same thoughts she'd had all the previous times. She stopped as she reached the end of the hallway, with her... with Terra's room nearby. The hallway terminated in a large window, looking out over the bay.

The window looked like it was designed to open easily, and Rose unhooked it, pushing the glass so that a gentle breeze came in from outside. The fresh air was nice, and the weather was good. Rose looked downwards, pulling a stone from the island up to the window, and stepping out onto it. As she began lowering herself to the ground, she realized how comfortable she'd gotten with things like this. Even though she was effectively walking out of a tenth-story window, she had no tense feelings or fear at all. Maybe her powers weren't all bad after all.

Rose climbed down off of the stone as she landed, trying to make as little noise as possible. She worked her way down the rocky coast of the island, sitting on a stone and looking out over the water, as the waves gently washed the stones in front of her. The island was peaceful, at least when the Titans weren't training, and it didn't seem like such a bad place to live. She wasn't sure how long she could stay here without actually joining the Titans, but it still wasn't bad.

Footsteps from behind her caught her attention, but she didn't turn. When the person spoke, it became obvious it was Raven. "You heard what Robin said."

Rose nodded, as Raven stepped forward, standing next to her and looking over the bay as well. "Yes, I did. I sort of thought it was true anyway. I mean, I am getting the memories back and everything."

Raven didn't respond, and the silence hung in the air, broken only by the quiet lapping of the waves and the calling of distant seagulls. Rose let her mind wander, but her thoughts didn't really follow any pattern, she was barely even aware that she was thinking. Instead, she was simply looking out over the water, in the morning light, watching the waves and the birds in the distance.

The quiet mood lasted a few more minutes, until motion from Raven broke the spell, as she sat on a stone nearby, and looked over towards Rose. "Beastboy is glad to have you around. He thinks of you as Terra, to an extent, but he knows that you aren't really her."

Rose jumped a bit from the sound, but then looked back, smiling slightly. "He seems like a nice guy, but the green skin and pointed ears... I don't know. He's not really attractive."

Raven smirked slightly, which Rose was beginning to suspect amounted to a snicker or a small laugh from anyone else. "He's strange, yes. Terra liked him. He was very devoted to her."

"I don't know why. She was crazy. What I remember of her, and what you guys have told me... I don't know. She seemed like a bad person." Rose looked back out over the water. She felt more and more strange talking about Terra as another person, as it was becoming more and more obvious that she had been Terra herself.

Raven shook her head slowly, as if uncertain that what she was about to say was true. "She wasn't. At least, I don't think she tried to be. She honestly regretted harming us. She did die to save the city."

"But I'm still here, and she's still here too, sort of. I mean, if I eventually remember everything from Terra, won't I basically be her? Memories sort of define a person, right?" Rose didn't know why she was opening up to Raven about her worries, but Raven seemed to at least be tolerating the discussion.

"Not exactly. As I've said: You are different. Your mind itself is different. Having her memories would change you, but it wouldn't make you into Terra." Raven seemed tense, as if talking this way was somewhat alien to her.

Rose decided to change the subject. "What about you? I mean, you had some stuff to work out with your dad, right? You said he was supposed to use you as a portal to come to this world. What happened to stop him?"

Raven tensed up even more, if that was possible, and took a deep breath before answering. Rose felt as if she'd hit a nerve that perhaps she shouldn't have. "The Titans stopped him. It was extremely difficult, and it caused a lot of pain for everyone involved. Slade is only alive because of what happened during that time. He made a deal with Trigon to force me into obedience, in exchange for being resurrected."

"He made a deal with the devil? That's what you said Trigon was, right? The devil?"

Raven nodded. "Effectively. It depends on how you are using the word, and he wouldn't call himself a devil, but it's basically correct."

Rose sighed. "So there's basically no way to say that Slade isn't evil. I mean, if he was willing to trade whatever Trigon was going to do to the world just to get his life back, he's just evil. I was hoping... I don't know. He's still my dad, you know?"

Raven didn't respond for a moment. When she did, her tone was unreadable. "I don't know what it's like to have a father I care for. I do know that Slade is a master manipulator and very dangerous. You can't be soft on him, Rose. Especially if you end up joining the Titans."

Rose nodded, her sadness evident on her face. The two girls sat in an uncomfortable silence for a few moments. Finally, Raven stood, apparently trying to escape the awkward silence. "I'm going back inside. I'll tell the others you are awake. Will you be here?"

"Yeah, for a while anyway. I might come inside after I get myself figured out." Rose stared over the water again, not wanting to look at Raven. She felt embarrassed about saying that Slade was still her father. She didn't think he was a good guy, but she didn't just want to kill him either.

Raven walked away without further discussion, and Rose sighed, sitting alone on the beach again. She used her powers to pick up a small stone nearby, and threw it across the water, watching it splash a dozen yards away. She smiled slightly, the childish amusement of throwing stones was enough to make her at least temporarily forget her troubles.

* * *

Rose sat there for some time, throwing rocks into the water, and thinking over her situation, before she was interrupted again. She could almost tell who it was before he even got there. He had a lighthearted gait and his footsteps made it obvious even before She turned to see the green teenager approaching. She returned his smile, and greeted him cordially. "Hi, Beastboy. What's up?" 

Beastboy walked forward, sitting fairly awkwardly on the same stone Raven had been sitting on, and grinning over at Rose. "Not much. We're just kind of hanging out today, I think. We've had a lot of trouble this week, so I think Robin is letting us take it easy."

Rose nodded, looking back out over the water, but smiling anyway. Her pensive mood had faded since Raven had gone, and she was just relaxing on the shore, instead of brooding over her wrecked life. "It's pretty out here. I don't remember spending much time at the shore, really. My dad sort of didn't like me parading around in a bathing suit."

She could hear his voice betray that he was picturing her in a bathing suit when he spoke, but she ignored it. "Oh, uh... what's your dad like anyway? I mean, I know you're having problems with him."

Rose shrugged, not sure how to describe him. "He's a weird guy. He's quiet, usually, and sort of strict, but mostly nice enough to me. He made decent money, doing whatever he does, and it wasn't like I was in need of anything. He just always seemed kind of distant, I guess."

Beastboy smiled, watching her talk. It was a little unnerving how much attention he paid to her. "Yeah, my dad was like that. Well, he was a scientist. We spent a lot of time traveling. But still, he was a nice person, and I think he was a good father."

Rose turned slightly, smiling at Beastboy. "So where is he now? I mean, you guys all live here with no adults."

Shrugging, Beastboy tried to appear nonchalant. "He's dead. Both of my parents died when I was younger. It's sort of a running theme with all the Titans actually. Raven is the only one with living parents."

Unsure of how to react, Rose decided to focus on Raven instead of Beastboy's dead parents. "You mean Trigon, right? She told me about him."

Beastboy nodded. "Yeah, seriously bad dude. We beat him, but only barely. Her mom is also still around, I think, but trying to get Raven to talk about herself is so impossible. I might as well be trying to get her to play video games."

Rose giggled, but then her smile faded. "He's not my dad anyway." Rose returned the topic back to her father again. "He's just some weirdo who adopted me after my memory was gone, or whatever."

"Yeah, but at least he took care of you, right? I mean, it would have stunk to wake up with no memories and have to find your way around the city alone."

Rose nodded. "Yeah, he mentioned that to me when we had a fight about it. I still don't think it makes up for--"

Suddenly, the stillness of the morning was broken by a loud alarm from inside the Tower. Beastboy grinned, before changing into a bird, and flying towards the roof. Rose pulled a stone from the ground and followed. A quick run through the corridors later, they entered the Operations room. The huge screen in the window showed a map of the city. The rest of the Titans were already in the room.

As quickly as it had started, the alarm ceased, and the map of the city was replaced with the now-familiar mask of Slade.

"Slade." Robin seemed to spit the name, as if the very mention of Slade was distasteful.

Slade's voice was calm and collected this time, no surprise remaining at Rose's presence. "As astute as ever, Robin. It's almost nostalgic to be communicating like this, isn't it?"

Ignoring the villain's taunting, Robin was nonetheless obviously livid to be contacted by Slade at all. "It doesn't matter where you are hiding this time, we will find you. Just like every other time you've attacked us, we will win."

"Once again you make assumptions with no validity. I am not hiding, Robin. In fact," Slade held up a slightly damaged looking Titan's communicator. "I'm right here."

Robin looked back at the other Titans, and they all obediently held up their communicators. It wasn't theirs. "Who's is that? Who did you attack?"

Rose spoke quietly from behind the Titans. "It's Terra's."

If the mask had shown it, Rose almost felt like Slade was smiling. "Ah, Rose, you always were such a clever girl. Robin, you know how to track this. I will be waiting."

The image on the screen vanished, as Slade apparently cut off communication. The map of the city came up again. Robin turned towards Rose. "How did you recognize that communicator so fast?"

Rose felt her eyebrows furrow. Her voice came out angrier than she'd intended. "How do you think? Your tests told you who I was."

Robin turned back to the computer console in front of him, apparently unwilling to argue with Rose at the moment. A few keystrokes, and the image on the screen changed, showing a different part of the city, with a flashing "T" on it. Robin's eyes narrowed.

Beastboy's voice was quiet, with anger running underneath. "Why there?"

Rose looked at the map. "Uh, so he's in Markov park. So what?"

Raven's voice was icy, apparently she wasn't happy with Slade either. "He's not in Markov Park, he's under it. He's baiting us to meet him where Terra died."

Starfire shuddered. "It is most unpleasant to think of returning there."

"You know it's a trap. But we're going anyway, aren't we?" Cyborg looked at Robin.

Robin nodded. "We have to. Slade is too dangerous to be allowed to walk freely through the city."

Turning towards Rose, Robin changed his tone from anger to caution. "Rose, this will be extremely dangerous. Wait here at the tower, we'll take care of this one."

"No."

The other Titans turned towards Rose with surprise on their faces, or slightly less indifference, in Raven's case. It was rare that anyone just flat out defied Robin.

"I'm going. Slade is obviously just waiting there for me anyway, and so I'm going with you." Rose tried to stand her ground, despite how intimidating Robin was.

Robin seemed to think it over a moment. "Fine, I can't stop you, and we don't need to waste time and energy fighting you right now. When we get there, stay sharp. Don't fight him. If you feel your control slipping, tell us and Raven will get you somewhere safe. Got it?"

Rose nodded. "I'll tell you."

* * *

Flying across the bay on a stone from the island, and surrounded by flying or carried Titans, Rose felt really powerful. She felt like she'd become one of them, a superhero. However, she still couldn't shake the expressions that the other Titans had shown when Slade had first appeared. They were all scared of him, even if they tried to act as if they weren't. 

Rose wasn't sure how she felt towards Slade. Even with the mask on, he was still her father, and she couldn't feel too afraid of him. The mask itself, however, made her extremely uneasy. She wasn't sure why, but she assumed it was some left over memory from Terra. She felt weird, having memories from what felt like someone else entirely.

Lowering her stone as the Titans landed in Markov Park, Rose jumped to the ground, as the stone settled to the grass. She saw the civilians in the area quickly clear out; the Titans presence in force probably meant combat, and they knew it. Rose followed the Titans, as they came to a dark hole, with a boulder laying nearby.

The Titans continued, Cyborg turning on a flashlight built into his shoulder. Rose walked in the back of the group, not wanting to be the first one to be attacked if they walked into a trap. The dark tunnel they were in felt like a tomb. There was just a sense of silent reverence in the air, despite that Rose knew no one was interred here any longer.

The group halted as they came to a pair of smashed steel doors. The room beyond was dark, but Rose knew almost instinctively what was there. It was the room where Terra had died. Rose felt sick, mostly due to nervousness about entering this room. Anything directly connected with Terra seemed to spur memories, and recent events made her wonder if she really wanted the memories back after all.

The Titans seemed to look at each other and speak without words, Robin confirming that everyone was ready just by the look in their eyes. Rose hesitated a moment after the Titans continued into the dark room, then followed, not wanting to stay behind in the pitch black darkness.

Cyborg's light seemed to shine everywhere but the center of the room, as if he was avoiding something. The room was a mess; twisted metal beams and shattered glass standing in strange formations, caught in a swirling mess of cooled lava flow. Rose also noticed new-looking wires running here and there, and suddenly the cause became apparent, and three huge video screens turned on, showing nothing but bright white, and lighting the room completely.

Slade was standing on a small pillar in the center of the room, holding his arms out to his sides, in an almost Christological pose. The pillar had a small plaque at the bottom, the name "Terra" visible at this distance, but the other writing too small to be read. The video screens that were now lighting the room were large, easily the size of the Titans' main view screen in operations, one on each wall, excluding the entryway.

As if he'd just noticed the Titans, Slade tilted his head, looking down at them, and lowering his arms. "You found me. How clever."

The Titans were instantly on edge, Robin and Cyborg jumping into combative stances, with Raven and Starfire flying upwards and slightly away, scattering the targets for Slade. Beastboy was looking at the pedestal, seemingly torn between anger and grief. Rose had no idea how to react, simply standing behind the Titans and watching Slade. Something was wrong about his movements, she felt like he wasn't really there.

Robin's voice was icy and full of anger. "Don't dance around it. Why did you bring us here?"

"As ever, you lack patience, boy. Do you honestly think that I went through the trouble of installing this equipment here, just to irritate you and your little friends?" Slade leapt softly down from the pedestal, walking slowly towards the Titans, with a casual air that for some reason completely terrified Rose.

Slade stopped some distance away from the Titans, looking towards Rose. "You know this place, child. You can feel it, can't you?"

Rose felt her hands ball into fists, but didn't respond, not sure what he was doing. Beastboy, however, showed less restraint, running angrily towards Slade, and swinging with his fist, though easily dodged. "Leave her alone! Haven't you done enough to her?"

Slade caught one of Beastboy's wild, untrained punches, and threw him hard towards the Titans. He was caught by Cyborg, and set to the ground, with Cyborg holding his shoulder to restrain him. "Careful, boy. We both know you are just as guilty in torturing this girl as I am. Hounding her at school, coercing her into following you to your tower, and even now, acting as if she is someone she clearly is not."

* * *

The screens suddenly went dark, lighting up a moment later with a view of the same room, in a greenish hue, obviously a night vision camera. The audio was muffled, as if it was being recorded through a heavy cloth. Rose could see herself... well, Terra, she supposed, crying on the floor, near the entryway behind them. There was a sound of grinding and twisting metal, and Beastboy came into the shot, looking angry at first, then concerned for Terra. He ran lightly towards her, his voice quiet and uncertain. "Terra?" 

Her voice was weak when she spoke, but carried a certain commanding tone, born of desperation. "Destroy me... quick."

"What?"

Terra's voice grew stronger, almost angry, but still desperate. "Come on! Isn't that what you came for? Do it! Now!"

Arcs of electricity flowed over the girl's body, and she grunted, as if straining her entire body. She stood, a spark of her power throwing Beastboy powerfully backwards, and off-screen.

The monitors went dark a moment, and came back, fully white again.

"Terra is dead. The girl blindly following you is nothing more than an illusion, a remnant of another person. Terra's body lives on, but she is gone." Slade was looking directly at Rose as he spoke, and Rose tried to ignore the pounding headache that always seemed to come before the memories. Her powers were swimming under the surface, and she felt them reach out, sensing the room despite her attempts to keep them completely unactivated.

Robin, along with the rest of the Titans, seemed furious at having this video shown. "It doesn't matter who she is. We're helping a girl who needs it. You still haven't told us why you are even here."

"You haven't figured it out yet? As always, you disappoint me greatly, Robin." Slade walked through the group of Titans, who simply watched him cautiously, and approached Rose. Rose gritted her teeth, as Slade reached out, putting his fingers under her chin, and tilting her head upwards, looking her in the eye. "I'm simply here to collect what is mine."

Slade was knocked powerfully sideways, as a large chunk of the wall smashed into him. Recovering in mid air, he landed feet-first on the wall, propelling himself back towards the Titans. They were ready to block his attacks, but he stopped suddenly, suspended in the air, traces of yellow powers running over his body. Rose's eyes glowed brightly, her face in an angry scowl. "Don't touch me again. Don't lie to us. Where are you?"

Beastboy looked at her with worry. "Uh, Rose? He's right there. What are you-"

Rose moved her arms, forcing Slade to smash into the floor. Slade emitted an electronic noise, before Rose's powers tore the robot apart, scattering advanced metallic parts across the floor. "No, it wasn't him. It's a robot. I don't like to be lied t..."

Rose put her hand to her head, the headache getting worse. "I... I..."

The screens flashed again, and showed Slade's face. "Very good, Rose. You are improving."

Through the monitors, sounds of battle were playing. The picture still simply showed Slade's face. Rose heard Terra shouting, by the sound of things, fighting Slade. The Titans grimaced, the audio apparently familiar to them.

"You know what this is, Rose. It's still in your mind. The remaining implants in your body give me complete access to your vital signs. I know you are in pain, and you know what will clear it."

The sounds of battle got louder, and suddenly grew quiet. Terra's voice rang out from the screens. "You can't control me any more!"

Rose screamed, holding her head as the headache increased. She could feel her powers slip her control, activating wildly. "Robin... run... all of you..."

Slade's voice came over the monitors. "Yes, Rose. Let it come."

Raven landed in the center of the Titans, but looked over towards Rose. "Will you be ok?"

Rose fought her powers desperately, feeling them escaping her control too quickly. "Yes... but go! Get away!"

The Titans disappeared in a flash of black power, being teleported away, despite Beastboy straining against Cyborg's grip. Rose fell to her knees, holding her head, the pain thumping heavily with her pulse, almost unable to see because of it. Several audio tracks were playing through the monitors and speakers. She heard herself consoling Beastboy, antagonizing Raven, attacking Robin, and being beaten by Slade. The monitors still only showed Slade's staring mask, as heavy stones began crumbling from the ceiling.

Rose's mind reeled under the sudden assault of memories, images, and sounds. Everything simply raced past her, too fast to see, let alone comprehend. Her powers wildly tore at the walls and floor. Stone, glass, and metal all flew through the air, smashing apart the monitors and tearing large holes in the room. The earth was shaking, and Rose could do nothing at all to stop it. All she could do was grit her teeth as the pain overwhelmed her, pushing her past any semblance of consciousness.

* * *

When Rose awoke, it was dark. It was more than dark. She'd thought that dark was how her room was in the middle of the night, with the lights off. This was... she couldn't even tell she'd opened her eyes. Her head still hurt, and she could... she could remember everything. 

She remembered. It was muddy, and unclear, but she remembered everything. She could picture her parents, she could remember Terra killing them, she could see the towns that Terra had traveled to, she could remember fighting Conner in Smallville, she remembered everything. Well... almost everything. Her time as Slade's apprentice was still fuzzy. She remembered... had he hit her? They hadn't been fighting, but she remembered...

Rose sighed, trying to push the memories away for the moment, focusing on her present rather than her past. She tried to sit up, but only got about halfway to sitting before knocking her head against rough stone. She rubbed her head, looking up at where the stone was, but still seeing nothing. Rose closed her eyes, reaching out with her powers. She sighed as she felt stone all around her. Some of it felt like the volcanic floor of the room she'd been in, but some was the more solid sedimentary stone that made up the local area's bedrock. Rose frowned. Even her mind felt different, with Terra's memories in there. She didn't know about different types of stone before.

Uncertain about the stability of the stone, or the reason that her little pocket of air here even existed, Rose didn't try to dig her way out just yet, instead simply staring up into the darkness, thinking. She had been Terra. Of that, there was no more doubt. She was Terra, her parents were dead, and Slade was not her father.

Slade was... well... he wasn't her father. He was a villain. However, he... he wasn't evil to her. At least, not to Rose. Her memory slowly became a bit more clear. He'd been brutal to Terra. He'd beaten her terribly, simply for running from a fight that she couldn't possibly have won. Rose felt tears form in her eyes as she thought of it. Even though it had happened when she was Terra, it still felt as real as if her... "father"... had done it to her as Rose.

Rose wiped her eyes with her sleeve, and sighed into the darkness again. She could sense the Titans removing stone, digging to the center of the mess she must have created. She had no idea what had happened after she'd lost control. For all she knew, she may have destroyed the entire city.

Focusing her powers, Rose began to split the mess of stone and rubble over her. A moment of concentration, and she began moving stones from above the pile, tossing them sideways, and digging herself out. She noticed that no more stones were being moved above, as the Titans obviously noticed her actions. A few moments, and she'd cleared enough loose stone that she was able to force a crack open and move herself upwards through it, kneeling on a stone that she raised from the floor.

She must have looked strange, rising from the fissure in the earth, her bright costume covered in volcanic ash and mud, her skin ruddy with soil, and her face half smiling and half nervous. She landed her stone near the crack, stepping off of it, and looking around. The sun was bright, blinding her at first, but as her eyes adjusted, she saw the city, and knew that she was in trouble.

Markov park was surrounded by fairly small buildings, thankfully, as none of them were still standing. The city was a disaster zone for at least five blocks in any direction, nothing but twisted and broken rubble. Rose looked at the Titans, who were staring at her, apparently uncertain as to what to say. Rose stammered a bit. "Uh... h...hi. I'm... I'm still alive."

Rose felt what could only be Raven's powers brushing up against her mind. Raven didn't say anything, simply pulling up her hood and crossing her arms. Robin, however, walked up to Rose, with his normal confidence. "Glad you made it. We were worried about you."

"Rose!" Beastboy seemed to suddenly recover from the shock of seeing her, and ran up to her, hugging her in excitement. Feelings from before, Terra's feelings, kept her from immediately pushing him away. Still, she didn't want his attention, and pulled away from him after just a few moments.

"Yeah, hi Beastboy. I made it. I think... I think my powers kept me alive."

Rose looked around again. "How many people? How many died?"

Cyborg shook his head. "Nobody. The quake started off slow and we got everyone out. It's ok, Rose."

"Yes, please, do not blame yourself. It is Slade whom you should blame." Starfire looked worried, as if she was afraid that Rose would go crazy with regret, like Robin tended to. Rose frowned, realizing that it was Terra who had seen Robin like that, not her.

Raven spoke next, but her voice was full of irritation and distrust. "We need to get her out of here. The police aren't going to stay away forever."

Rose followed the other Titans as they gathered around Raven, and after a few moments in the void, found herself in the tower again, near the kitchen, with the late afternoon light shining from outside. Rose turned towards the other Titans. "What are we going to do about this mess? There's no way you guys have enough influence on the police to cover this one up."

Robin nodded, his face serious. "You're right; we don't. I'm sure I can get the money to help rebuild the area, but we are going to have to talk to the local police about it. In the meantime, I've told them that it was Slade's doing. It wasn't exactly lying."

"Dude, it so doesn't matter. The police need the Titans here anyway; it's not like they can fight supervillains on their own." Beastboy seemed unworried by the police situation.

Rose felt nervous, but knew that it had to be said. She walked over to the kitchen counter, then turned towards the Titans again, leaning back against it. "So... um... I know Raven already knows... but I... remember."

Raven's eyebrows furrowed, as if she was angry, but she didn't make any motion to attack. The other Titans exchanged glances a moment, except Beastboy, who grinned widely. "You're Terra? You remember everything?"

Rose shook her head. "You're half right. I remember it, but I'm not Terra. Not anymore. I know how you two felt about each other, but I'm not the same girl, Beastboy."

Beastboy looked a bit defeated, his grin gone. Cyborg tried to break the slightly depressing mood. "So what now? We gotta go get Slade, right?"

"Of course, but we have no idea where he is." Robin looked angry, but seemingly was choosing to ignore the fact that Rose remembered who she had been. Rose wasn't sure if this was because he already knew due to DNA testing, or if he was just more focused on Slade than anything else.

Raven's tone was curt, and her voice was cold and suspicious. "Can you control your powers?"

Rose looked at her hands, as if they held the answer. Her memories were back, but they felt disconnected, and it took a moment to remember what she was aiming for. She shook her head slightly. "I remember how it was done, but I can't do it. Slade used implants and nanotechnology to help me with that. He masked it with meditation at first, but I knew everything later. I can't do it the same way without Slade's help."

"Hmm." Raven made a noncommittal noise, scowling.

"We will find him, friend. Do not worry yourself." Starfire smiled at Rose as she spoke, though Rose almost felt as if Starfire was trying more to console herself than to ease Rose's worries.

"Of course you will find me." Slade's mask appeared again on the monitor, larger than life. His voice was, as always, calm and dangerous. "You are clever children when you need to be."

The Titans were all visibly shaken by the interruption. Rose felt different, seeing Slade, after her memories had resurfaced. The mask carried even more discomfort now, and there was a sense of abject fear associated with his voice and presence. Terra had been terrified of him.

However, there was also... gratitude. Some sense of owing something to him. The control of her powers had changed Terra's life on the most basic level, and she had known that it was a debt that must be repaid. Rose wasn't certain if she could identify her own feelings as separate from Terra's anymore.

"Where are you? Tell me where!" Robin was shouting at the screen, as if he could intimidate Slade with volume and ferocity.

"Certainly there are more pressing matters than that, Robin." Slade's voice was condescending, seemingly with no purpose other than to further infuriate Robin.

Raven took Slade's bait, knowing that the question had to be asked. "You responded to something Starfire said. How were you listening to us?"

It almost seemed that Slade smiled, though his mask covered his face. If he was smiling, his voice did not show it. "You will have to ask your new member about that. She is carrying something of an old gift from me."

Rose reached down and pulled out the hairpiece, almost instinctively. How could she have been so naive? She reached out with her powers, and immediately realized that the object was not solid, but instead filled with transmission and recording devices. Her hands glowed yellow slightly, and the small butterfly twisted and crushed in on itself, destroying the electronics. "Where are you? Tell me."

Slade paused a moment, as if thinking. Finally, he stepped back from the camera, revealing himself in a small cave. One that was immediately recognizable by both Rose and Raven. It was Terra's old cave. Slade stood, with his hands clasped behind him. "I will be here, Rose. I know what you want to do, and we have much... old business to discuss."

The video feed cut off, and the screen went black. Rose felt her powers simmering beneath the surface. She knew that it was Terra's anger she was feeling, but she felt that some of it was hers as well. Slade had betrayed Rose, by lying to her for so long. Now, he was off in a remote location, where she wouldn't have to worry about killing anyone. It was as if he was just asking to be killed again.

Raven's voice was sharp, but carried a note of pity with it. "We don't do that, Rose."

Rose looked at her quickly, with surprise. "You don't do what?"

"We don't kill. We will not let you kill Slade." Raven seemingly did not want to take chances with this, letting everyone else know what she'd heard from Rose's mind before Rose could talk her way out of it.

Rose shook her head, smiling slightly. "No, I'm not going to. I was just thinking that since Terra did it last time, it was almost as if he was asking for it."

Cyborg rubbed his bald head with his hand. "But where is he? All I saw was a cave."

"It's Terra's old cave. Raven and I both know where it is. It's probably a trap though, and he might not even be there." Rose felt odd. The Titans were ignoring that she'd been inadvertently giving information to Slade. Not only that, but Terra's memories made her want revenge on Slade, while her own mind was trying to cast him in a more positive light, since she still felt as if he was her father.

"Dude! I know where it is too! Terra and I went there one day to get some stuff she'd left! Come on, we can fly, it's not even that far!" Beastboy seemed excited, almost thinking that if they defeated Slade, the troubles would be over and everyone could be happy again.

Rose shook her head. "It's a trap. I mean, everything Slade ever does seems to be a trap. Why do you guys keep walking into them?"

"We do not have any other choice." Starfire's voice was sad, but she seemed to be simply stating a fact. "Slade is... difficult. We have much trouble finding him unless he wishes to be found."

Robin nodded. "Also we need to stop him in whatever his plan is. He's a psychopath, and he can't be planning anything good."

The Titans all seemed to agree without further words that the best option was to pursue him immediately. Rose followed them as they ran through the tower, and pulled a stone from below, following them as they flew in a northward direction, towards her old cave. Terra's. Terra's old cave.

Rose moved her stone a bit, feeling different using her powers now. Terra's memories had brought with them a certain bit of expertise. Rose felt her powers out, banking the stone and turning a few quick turns, testing her abilities. She noticed the Titans looking back at her, and she blushed a bit. "Uh, sorry guys. Just testing it out. Terra knew how to use her powers better than I do."

* * *

The group continued on, arriving at the cave in only a few minutes. Rose dropped the stone on the ground, landing next to the rest of the Titans. The canyon was quiet, with no sign of any life anywhere. The other Titans seemed to be looking to Robin for instructions, so Rose kept quiet. 

"Ok Titans. We know this is a trap, so stay on your feet. Slade is probably going after Rose, so protect her and don't leave her alone. Slade can't possibly beat all of us at once, so if we stick together we'll all be fine. Let's go."

They had landed fairly close to the cave, and they started up the stone steps immediately, Rose preferring to walk than fly. Raven and Starfire flew quickly up to the top, and met the others there. Robin took the lead, stepping cautiously into the cave, constantly looking for physical traps or deadfalls. The cave looked almost the exact same as when Rose had left it, with a sandy floor that obscured footprints, and no electronic equipment like Slade seemed fond of using.

It was a short path into the cave, before the Titans stepped into the only room, which was completely empty, lacking even footprints that might have denoted Slade's previous presence. Robin angrily pounded his fist into the wall, making Rose flinch. "He's not here! He's just taunting us!"

"Am I, Robin?" The voice seemed to echo in the small room, impossible to tell where it came from. The Titans all put their backs towards each other, looking around for the source. The room was still empty. Rose heard sounds from outside, like dozens of feet marching. The robotics schematics her father seemed so fond of came back to her mind. She reached out with her powers, sensing the stone around her, the three speakers discreetly hidden in the room, as well as the fifty or so human-sized robots outside.

"Uh, guys? There are a lot of robots outside the caves." Rose pulled the speakers from the walls, using her powers, holding them hovering in near the Titans. "This is how he was talking to us."

Robin raised an eyebrow at Rose. "How do you know all this?"

Rose blushed slightly, realizing she hadn't revealed the extent of her abilities. "Uh, I can sorta... sense metal and stone. The stuff I can move. Terra couldn't do it, but I can."

"Interesting, child, but it won't save you." Slade's calm, taunting voice came from the speakers. "The Titans, though formidable, have their limit, and when my army is through with them, I'll come for you... myself."

The speakers sparked brightly, and burned themselves out. Rose dropped them to the floor. Robin turned towards the rest of his team. "Ok, there's an army of robots outside, but we've beaten an army of them before. You guys know what to do. Rose, stay safe. If you need help, tell us."

Robin grinned, apparently glad to see action again. "Titans, Go!"

* * *

A/N: I know it's cheese to end a chapter on that, but I enjoy it. Anyway, next chapter out as soon as I'm able. Hope you enjoyed this one, and please review! 


	9. Aftershock

Review Responses: 

StarshineSoldier: Wow, you called it. Good timing on the review, as I'm updating very soon after. Anyway, I'm glad you like the idea of Slade being a weird but decent father. Seeing him change is part of Rose's problem, and part of the reason that everything is so nuts for her. Anyway, glad you are enjoying the fic. Hope you like this chapter as well.

Cori Rain: Glad you like it! Here's the next chapter.

mattchew: Thanks! Here's another.

Kayasuri-n: Cheese indeed. There's thinky and action in a lot of the chapters. You didn't nag much, and here's the next chapter anyway.

* * *

A/n: This is the final chapter of this fic. I hope that you all have enjoyed it so far, and that this chapter is no exception. There's action and dialog in this one, but hopefully it meshes well. Enjoy!

* * *

"Titans, Go!"

Rose grinned as Robin shouted the battle cry of the Titans, feeling something from her days of Terra being reawakened in his leadership. She focused her mind, and the wall of the cave cracked, hesitated a moment, and then exploded outwards under her powers. The sudden bright light caused Rose to shield her eyes momentarily, and when she turned back to the opening, the Titans had already run out, tearing into the robotic army with a ferocity she hadn't seen from them yet.

Rose pulled the stone from underneath the cave's sandy floor and lowered herself into combat, feeling confident with Terra's old abilities in her mind now. Rose grinned as her stone sailed through the crowd of robots, just above their chest level, smashing them and throwing parts through the air. She hopped off of the stone, letting it fall into another group of robots, and began to fight in close quarters. Knowing that the Titans were nearby if she needed help gave her confidence, and as the robots continued to fall to her assault of thrown stones, she began to feel invincible.

The crowd of robots thinned quickly, as Rose and Raven both used their power to affect wide areas of machines at once. As Rose drove the arm of one robot through another's chest, trying out new ways of using her powers, she heard Starfire gasp, and Cyborg groan in exasperation. Looking to where they were facing, she saw an even larger army approaching, dozens upon dozens of Slade-like robots marching around a nearby mesa, coming into view from where they'd been hiding.

The fight that had been fun quickly became work. The robots were more active in this second wave, moving more quickly and aggressively. Rose tore the mechanical hand from the stone she was flying on, tossing it, along with it's owner, back into the mess of parts and enemies below. Making a motion of lifting with her hand in the air, Rose pulled a few dozen small stones from the desert, throwing them forcefully through a rank of soldiers, grinning with satisfaction as the stones tore through the robots, sending pieces of metal flying into the air as explosions tore through the crowd.

Rose could see, as the battle raged on, that the Titans were wearing low on patience, and becoming fatigued besides. Rose had kept to the skies after her initial foray into close quarters, preferring to stay above the main fighting. The other Titans were fighting more heavily than she, and it was beginning to show. Robin was surrounded with a wall of destroyed machines, but more and more continued to clamor over the sides. Cyborg's power was getting low, as he'd been overly free with his sonic cannon in the beginning of the battle. Beastboy was panting heavily, sweating when he was in a form that could. Raven still fought powerfully, doing a great deal of damage, but Rose could see by her wincing between attacks that the fight was pressing her mind to it's limits. Starfire alone seemed to be still bright and full of energy and anger, but Rose was able to tell that even the alien warrior's attacks were slowing.

As another crowd of robots, this time including some larger, white models that Rose recognized from Terra's days, came around from behind another plateau, Rose could see the defeated slump in the Titans' postures. They seemed almost doggedly determined to slay all the robots, despite the stupid uselessness of doing so. There was nothing to defend here. It made more sense to retre-

Rose's thoughts were cut short as a leaping enemy bashed into her from behind. She was bowled forward, off of her stone. She had time while falling to force the robot under her with her powers, using it's body to slow her fall, before tearing it apart just before she landed. Throwing the halves of the robot in different directions, taking out others on the way, Rose began to fight in close, with the rest of the team. She ignored her martial arts knowledge from Terra, instead still using ranged assaults with stones, and blocking with walls when she needed it.

Her body, unaccustomed to combat of any variety, let alone such a long battle, quickly tired, and she could see the others weren't doing much better. Robin was limping heavily, one knee showing through his torn leggings, and badly bruised. Cyborg was fighting hand to hand, with a beeping noise coming from his power display, indicating less than ten minutes of main power reserves. Raven was sweating profusely, grimacing each time her power manifested itself, her mind completely exhausted. Beastboy was covered in small cuts and bruises, his animal forms only so effective against the metal robots. Starfire was firing fewer starbolts as her power waned, and just mechanically tearing the robots apart with her strength.

Rose saw the new wave of robots encircle the Titans, and felt panic come across her as she realized that they were being overwhelmed. She fought hard along with them, firing rocks and throwing stones, but there were simply too many enemies to overcome. Her muscles were sore, when she saw the first Titan go down. Cyborg's power supply finally cut out, and he collapsed, his blue mechanical parts fading to a dark gray. The other Titans, Rose included, formed a ring around their fallen comrade, defending him desperately.

Beastboy was next, finally knocked unconscious from a large, white robot that pulled him into the air, gripping him in it's claws. He managed a choked cry for help before he passed out. The machine was immediately encased in Raven's black power, as she suddenly found the will to use them again, crushing the metal under her will, and running to the green boy's side as he fell from the claw. "We can't do this. We have to run."

Starfire sounded angry, but also a bit scared. "Run to where? We are surrounded, and they are most adept at leaping."

Rose felt the panic rising in her, as she continued to fight, defending the fallen and Raven, who was no longer able to fight. The circle of robots tightened, and there was less and less room to maneuver. As another of the large white robots lifted Rose into the air, her powers finally snapped. The yellow glow took over her vision, and she could feel her hair flying out behind her. "Enough!"

A flash of yellow light exploded outwards from Rose, shattering the white robot holding her, and moving around her in a large circle, slicing and demolishing all the robots in it's path. Rose couldn't see past the yellow glow of her eyes, though she could feel herself floating in the air, without a stone under her feet. In a few seconds, the explosion of power was gone, and she crashed to the ground, exhausted.

She felt a hand on her shoulder, and turned quickly, expecting another machine. Seeing Robin, however, she relaxed, and looked around, seeing the ocean of destroyed machines around her. One standing figure in the distance caught her eye, and she heard Robin frown. She hadn't thought it was possible to actually hear a frown.

Slade walked calmly towards them, picking his way through the broken and twisted bodies of the machines. Robin pushed Rose behind him, and Rose realized that they were the only Titans still standing. Rose's explosion seemed to have knocked the others around a bit, and Starfire and Raven had been knocked unconscious. Rose was relieved to see that Cyborg hadn't been affected by her attack.

Robin gave a desperate shout and rushed towards Slade, as it became apparent that Slade was no longer interested in talk. Robin threw a heavy and tired punch directly towards him, which Slade calmly sidestepped and countered, his fist slamming into Robin's stomach, and knocking the breath from him. Robin crumpled to the ground, coughing heavily. Rose lifted nearby robotic bodies into the air, menacing Slade with them, but unable to bring herself to attack him. He was still her father; she couldn't just hit him.

Robin struggled to his feet, and apparently deciding to forgo all finesse, simply jumped at Slade, grappling him. The two men struggled with one another, and Rose couldn't help Robin now if she wanted, as she didn't trust her aim that much. Finally, Slade crashed his fist into Robin's temple, and Robin's body finally succumbed to the endless attacks today, and he fell to the ground, unconscious.

Slade stood up, and turned calmly towards Rose. "Everyone has their limit, girl."

Rose moved the steel she was holding in the air. "Don't come any closer! I'm with the Titans! I'll fight you if I have to!"

Slade looked at the mechanical corpses she was holding, and then turned his eyes back to her. "You can't threaten me, child. You may not consider yourself Terra," Slade moved his hand, and pressed a small button on his wrist. "But you are still in her body..."

Rose felt her body go limp, and the world went dark, as she slipped into unconsciousness.

"... and Terra's body is always mine to control."

* * *

Rose opened her eyes slowly, her body sore from the fight, and her head pounding with pain. It was dark, wherever she was, but her eyes adjusted quickly. Slade was standing nearby, watching her. Rose tried to stand, but her hands wouldn't move right. She looked down at them, and found them bound by a pair of heavy, high-tech handcuffs. Rose struggled to her feet anyway, despite her limited mobility.

"You are awake. Good." Slade's voice was, as ever, calm and quiet.

"How..." Rose winced, her head pounding with pain. "How did you knock me out?"

Slade walked over to her, and gently brushed her hair from her face. "Terra trusted me to do anything I desired. Many of the implants are now so completely integrated with your nervous system that it is nearly impossible to remove them. One such implant was used to render you unconscious."

Rose recoiled from Slade's touch. "I told you before not to touch me, daddy. You aren't my real father; don't act like you are. Why did you handcuff me?"

"Don't be stupid, girl. You know that you are more powerful than any one person should be. I placed the metagene inhibitors on you for my own protection."

Slade paused a moment, looking at Rose. "You remember it all now, don't you?"

Rose nodded slowly. "Yes, I do. You're a monster. Terra hated you."

"I have no doubt of that. In fact, it leads to my point. I'm finished, Rose. I'm done with you."

Rose didn't know what he was talking about, and just listened.

"When I first... 'adopted' you, I was stalling. I'd run to your statue in hopes of finding you alive, with no plan in mind to use you. As time passed, and your new personality manifested, I knew that you were beyond my control. I no longer need an apprentice, and Terra was never a good student. Neither are you. You may leave."

A light turned on, somewhere above them, and highlighted a small table nearby. Slade walked over to it, picking up the two small cards on it. He returned to Rose, and held them up, so that she could see them. It was a driver's license, and a social security card. "These are for a young woman named Rose Markov. She exists as of yesterday. She is eighteen years old, a high school graduate, and an orphan. Perhaps she looks young for her age, but the official documents are all where they need to be, and her existence lies in your hands."

The manacles fell to the floor, deactivating themselves. Rose felt her power return immediately, and realized how weak she'd felt without it. She reached out, and took the cards from Slade. They looked real. "Why go through this much trouble for me?"

"If you have somewhere to start in life, you will be less likely to annoy me. Rose Wilson can no longer be your name. Rose Markov, however, was never connected to this. You can live as a normal girl, with no meta powers attached to your name. You are free to go. There is a box with forty thousand dollars in small, unmarked bills, in a storage locker at the airport, in your name. Use it to do whatever you wish." Slade stepped backwards, away from Rose. Lights clicked on above, showing the way to an exit, where a door opened, bright light from outside shining in.

Rose hesitated. Was he really just letting her go? She was able to do whatever she wanted? That seemed... so impossible. She took a few steps towards the door, watching Slade carefully, and walking backwards to avoid turning from him. He made no move at all. She finally turned around, and started walking at a normal pace towards the door, not wanting to look too anxious or do anything to make Slade change his mind. Suddenly, a flash of darkness seemed to pulse through her mind, and she felt Raven's presence.

Rose turned around quickly, putting the identification cards into her pocket, but facing Slade. "Where are they?"

Slade narrowed his eye. "The Titans?"

Lights clicked on above, lighting a series of five large, X-shaped restraints, on the other side of the dark room. The Titans were strapped to these, all wearing specialized looking equipment, doubtlessly for disrupting their powers. Raven was the only one that seemed conscious, holding her head halfway upwards, as she was held in place. She looked exhausted, and the anger in her eyes froze Rose even at this distance.

Rose turned to Slade again. "Let them go!"

Slade's voice was calm, but not without a hint of anger. "The Titans have been a thorn in my side for years. I have defeated them. They are mine."

Bringing her powers into the front of her mind, Rose saw her hands glow, and the yellow tint in her vision showed that her eyes were as well. "Let them go, Slade! They are my friends. I won't let you hurt them!"

A metal wall seemed to lower automatically around the Titans, as Slade reached up, and removed his mask. He spoke carefully. "Fine. Do it, child. Attack me."

Rose frowned. She should... he was evil... She should just pick up the floor and mash him into paste, but...

He was still her father.

Without the mask, without the "Slade" identity, he was her father again. The man who had helped her with her more difficult homework, had bought her presents, cooked dinner, spoken with her when things were going badly at school, and been there for her whenever she'd needed him. He was her father, whether he had been her real father or not, and she couldn't just kill him.

"You won't do it. Even if Terra hated me, you do not. Go, Rose. Leave." Slade looked smug.

Rose smirked. Fine. If he wanted to play it this way, then she wouldn't hurt him. She'd just have to let the Titans do it. Rose's hands glowed brightly as she focused, and quickly tore the metal wall away, letting it crash into the darkness. The restraints around the Titans' arms and legs tore apart as well, and the teenagers fell to the floor, Raven struggling to her feet afterwards.

Slade quickly replaced his mask, as the wall was torn away, and rushed quickly for the open door. Raven knelt, next to Robin, her hands glowing as she healed his injuries. She turned towards Rose, who was running towards them. "Go after him, Rose. You can still fight. I'll take care of the others. Go!"

Rose nodded, smiling at Raven. Seeing the smile weakly returned, she turned quickly, pulling a metal plate from the floor and flying after Slade. The bright light outdoors blinded her for a moment, as she flew through the exit, but not enough that she lost Slade. She was faster, on her powered flight, and quickly caught up to the man, who was currently running across the rooftop of a nearby building. Trying to stop him, Rose suddenly realized, would be difficult.

Rose pulled an air conditioning duct from the roof, throwing it at Slade, hoping to at least knock him over and slow his escape. Slade reached up, grabbing on to her floor plate, and swung upwards, dodging the duct and knocking her off balance. She fell off of the plate, tumbling on the rooftop, as he landed expertly on his toes, and was running again before she could even realize she'd fallen. Rose ran to where the plate had landed, and stepped onto it again, lifting herself into the air and pursued, finding him in a nearby alley. Slade jumped onto a strange looking motorcycle, and pressed a series of switches on the side. The machine immediately roared to life, and carried him quickly away. Sensing with her powers, Rose could find no metal inside the machine, seemingly made of some high-tech plastic.

Rose knelt on the floor plate, gripping the edge, and increasing her speed. Slade weaved in and out of traffic, tearing down the grid like streets of the industrial area of town. Rose had to focus on staying in sight, as well as staying on her ride, rather than trying to slow him at all.

Finally, Slade pulled out onto a highway, which Rose recognized as the main thoroughfare for Jump City. Finally able to focus on speed instead of agility, both Slade and Rose increased their velocity. Slade dodged traffic as he drove down the wrong side of the highway. His constant motion made him a difficult target. Rose frowned, but knew she had to do something to slow him. She concentrated, and a wall of stone sprang up a dozen feet in front of Slade's bike. Slade dodged it quickly, slipping into the adjacent lane. Car horns blared loudly as commuters swerved around the sudden blockage.

Tearing part of the wall off, Rose threw it at Slade in exasperation, her frustration overriding her concern about her father. The stone was easily dodged by Slade, but rolled down the street, crashing into a car that was coming the other way. Rose slowed quickly, but the driver was out of the car in a moment, not injured, but shaken. Not knowing how to apologize in this situation, Rose continued the chase.

By the time Terra was able to catch up again, Slade had crossed onto the Bronzegate Bridge, which spanned the eastern side of the bay. Traffic was moving slower here, and more sparse, due to the toll booth at the entrances. Slade was driving in a straight line now, and Rose felt more confident. Pulling hard with her powers, she tore a chunk of metal support structure from the bridge, and slung it in front of Slade, smashing into the concrete. Slade quickly pulled upwards on the front of the light vehicle, ramping himself over the damaged section, as cars swerved to avoid the manic driver and metahuman combat.

Angry and frustrated, Rose punched downwards with her hands, and the road itself buckled and collapsed in front of Slade, who simply turned the bike sharply, ramping the concrete separation between directions, and crossing to the other side of the bridge. The traffic ahead of the collapse stopped short, and the panicked civilians ran away from the damaged area. Rose followed, as they passed the other end of the bridge, heading into the skyscrapers and high rises of the financial district.

Rose pulled a vacant taxi from the side of the street and flung it forward, ahead of Slade. She realized with horror that she'd mis-aimed, but was relieved as it only clipped off the front of his motorcycle, instead of his head. Slade jumped from the destroyed vehicle, and rolled as he landed, expertly slowing himself without injury. Rose flew past him on her floor plate, banking it as she slowed herself, so that she wouldn't slide off of it. Slade stood again, as traffic stopped around them, the crashed car and bike making it difficult to continue.

Rose lowered her plate, and stepped off of it, her hands and eyes glowing dangerously. "Give up, Slade! You can't win!"

Slade stood confidently, seeming smug. "I've already won, Rose. Look around you."

Rose looked around, not certain of what she was supposed to see. The civilians were getting out of their cars, staring at her and Slade with wide eyes. They didn't recognize her, and that seemed to make them distrustful. If she wasn't a Titan, she must be a villain. They were afraid of her. She'd been tearing through town, destroying bridges and roadways, and she hadn't realized that she was terrifying people.

She didn't want to do this. She didn't want to scare people. Her mind rushed back to Ashley and her schoolmates, the first time she'd lost control as Rose. She had to stop this.

She looked back at Slade, who seemed to be smirking, even though she couldn't see his face behind his mask. "Goodbye Rose. I'll be watching you."

Slade clicked another button on his wrist, and disappeared, seemingly into thin air. Terra's memories of his research made Rose assume that he had only cloaked himself, but she had no way of being certain. Regardless, she had no way to trace him. Rose ignored the civilians, and walked back to her plate, and took off again, heading back to where the Titans were, to help them back to the tower.

* * *

The daylight was fading outside the large windows in the operations room of Titans Tower, as Rose stood with the Titans. They had arrived some time earlier, but had been busy healing themselves and recharging Cyborg. All of the teenagers were bandaged and bruised, but none of their injuries were too severe. In a few days, they'd all be back to normal.

Rose had taken the time to retrieve the money from the airport, switching it from the case it came in, which she'd assumed was full of tracking devices, into a burlap sack that she'd bought at a nearby shop. She'd also purchased a belt for her costume, similar to the one that Terra had used, just in case she ever needed it. She wasn't really certain what to do with that much money, but knew that it would run out soon enough if she had to live on her own.

Robin had called everyone to operations shortly after Rose had returned, and Rose was nervous, uncertain as to what was about to be announced. The other Titans had a vaguely excited demeanor, with the exception of Raven, and it made her anxious. Smiling, Robin stepped towards her.

"Rose, We know that you aren't really sure what you want to be, and we don't want to pressure you. However, after we talked about it, we decided to offer you this."

Robin held out a small, yellow communicator. Rose looked down at it, and then back up to Robin's face. He grinned. "We want you to be an honorary Titan, Rose. You don't have to stay with us, if you don't want to, but you'll always have a way to call us."

Rose reached out, and took the communicator in her hand, looking at it incredulously. Her? A Titan? "Wow, I... I don't know what to say. I mean... sure! I'd like to be a Titan!"

"Wonderful!" Rose barely had time to brace herself, before Starfire hugged her overly tightly again. "We are most happy that you have accepted! We were worried that you may decline."

"Great to have you on the team, Rose. We could always use another butt-kicker like you." Cyborg had a confident grin on his face.

"Woo! Back on the team! Well, you know what I mean." Beastboy flashed an awkward smile. Rose couldn't help but laugh.

Raven put her hand on Rose's shoulder. "Are you sure? I know you don't want to fight for the rest of your life."

Rose nodded. "I'll figure something out. I mean, it was sort of fun fighting the robots today, at least at first."

Cyborg yawned, making a big show of it, like normal. "Well, it's not even eight yet, but I'm goin' to bed. Nothing like a long day of fighting crime to tire you out."

Robin nodded. "We should all get some rest. We need to be as healed as we can by tomorrow."

Rose waved to the others as the group broke up, heading to their rooms. Rose walked down the hallway to her room, holding the communicator, and looking at it. A Teen Titan. She could be a superhero. She'd known it was possible ever since her powers had first gone off, but it had never seemed so real as now. She was a Titan.

Rose stopped at her door, looking at the name on the front. Terra. If she became a Titan, would she slowly become Terra? Fighting every day, with Terra's teammates, against villains that could kill her without even trying, or even against her father... would she become the overconfident, powerful girl she had been?

Rose sighed, clicking the button next to the door, and opening it. She stepped inside, and closed it behind her, pressing the switch to lock it as well, now that she remembered how to. She crossed the room, and sat down on the end of the bed, looking down at her communicator. The sack of money sitting in the corner was still there, which Rose noted happily. She'd been half afraid that Slade would think better of his offer and steal it back. Rose looked back to the communicator, and sighed.

Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out the license and social security card for Rose Markov. The name was a nice choice. She was used to being Rose, instead of Terra or Tara, and Markov kept her parent's name alive, at least for now. She held the cards in her right hand, and the communicator in her left.

Choices. It always came down to some binary choice. She could either be Rose Wilson, a Teen Titan, and a superhero, or Rose Markov, a normal girl, struggling to make ends meet, but not living in constant danger every day.

Her left hand held excitement. It held martial training, endless combat, and immense personal power. It held immunity to the law, as well as possible eventual Justice League membership. She could save the world. She could be a big hero, like Superman, or Wonder Woman. She could live every little kid's dream.

Her right hand held stability, and sanity. It held daily work, financial troubles, and a low-rent apartment. However, it also held the possibility of a normal life. She could date some guy that she met at a coffee shop, fall in love, get married, and have kids. She could go to college, study hard, and become whatever she wanted. Normal life, as boring as it sometimes was, afforded her different options than the exciting life of a hero.

Rose sighed. She couldn't be expected to make this decision right now, but the longer she waited, the less likely she was to break from whatever path she followed while she decided. Rose stood, sighing heavily, and pocketed the cards. She placed the communicator in a compartment in her belt. Rose walked across the room, and picked up the small, mirrored box.

She opened it, and looked at herself in the mirror. Once again, she was surprised at her appearance, looking so much like the same, naive high school girl that had existed only a few days ago. Looking at her reflection somehow made things clearer. She wasn't a Titan. She wasn't Rose Markov either. She was herself, and she had to find out who that was before she could be anyone else.

Rose smiled.

* * *

Rose, now dressed in normal clothes, landed her stone next to the quiet highway, the nighttime darkness surrounding her. She looked back, at Jump City, with Titans Tower shining brightly in the bay, and smiled. It was a good city, but she had to go. There was too much history there.

Rose turned, looking down Highway 101, at the lights of San Francisco in the distance. She took a deep breath, and stepped forwards, starting her long walk to the city, not wanting to show up as Rose Markov, flying around on a rock. Her first few steps went well, before the now-familiar black shape appeared in front of her, startling her for a moment.

The shaped formed into a young girl, and Raven was there again, her face another show of practiced indifference. Something about her manner gave away her sadness, however, and Rose suddenly felt bad for not at least saying goodbye first. Raven looked at her. "Leaving?"

Rose nodded. "Yeah, I can't stay. There's too much attached to the Titans for me. If I stay, I'll just be Terra number two."

Raven sighed. "To Robin, perhaps. He sometimes tends to see people as a list of powers and abilities, rather than actual people. You know that it isn't true for everyone else, Rose."

"Yeah, but... I don't know. I'm not Terra Markov, not anymore. But I'm not Rose Wilson either, not only her, anyway." Rose found it hard to put her thoughts into words. She wasn't really even certain what she was leaving for, but she knew she had to.

"I won't stop you from leaving. None of the others are even awake. I just wanted you to know..." Raven hesitated a moment, looking mildly uncomfortable with close talk. "You have a home here. If you ever need a place to stay, or if you ever just need someone to talk to, call me. I'll be here."

Rose smiled. "Thanks, Raven. You've been a really good friend for me. I'll be back sometime. I just need to take some time to sort things out. I've been running away from everything for so long, either as Terra, when she ran away from her mistakes, or as Rose, running away from her past, that I need to take some time to come back. I need to find myself before I can make any big decisions."

Raven nodded. "Good luck then. We'll be here if you need us."

Rose hesitated a moment, and then stepped towards Raven, putting her arms around her, and hugging her briefly. To Rose's surprise, Raven hugged her as well. Rose pulled away before Raven got annoyed, and smiled. "Thanks for being a friend. I'll keep in touch, ok?"

Raven nodded. "You helped me as well. I needed this, to get over what Terra had done. Thank you. I'll be waiting to hear from you. Goodbye, Rose."

Rose waved, as Raven teleported away again. Rose looked back at Jump city one last time.

She smiled, and walked down the highway, to find her new life.

* * *

A/N: I know, it's a weird ending, but Rose is going back to what Terra did for a while, but hopefully with happier results. Thanks for reading this fic, and I hope you liked the final chapter. I don't know what I'll be writing next, or when, but hopefully it'll be good. See you then! 


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